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Probe ordered on alleged sponsorship scheme
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Posted on Jun 02 2005
The Department of Labor’s Hearing Office has ordered an investigation into the alleged sponsorship activities by an employer and a nonresident worker.
In an administrative order, hearing officer Cinta Kaipat said worker William Onque Quijano would be eligible for a temporary work authorization while the investigation was ongoing.
Whether or not he would be allowed to transfer to a new employer would be decided after the investigation.
The order stemmed from an appeal filed by Quijano and employer Moises P. Cudiamat asking the Hearing Office to reverse an earlier decision by the Division of Labor to deny their employment application.
The Labor Division had denied the application due to several deficiencies such as missing or improperly filled out documents.
The denial was issued on May 19, 2004, with the untimely appeal following 10 months later.
According to Kaipat, the appeal should be denied on the basis of its untimely filing alone.
“However, the parties made representations at the hearing that caused the hearing officer to believe that the parties never intended a legitimate employment relationship to begin with, despite the filing of the employment application by the employee,” Kaipat noted.
She recalled that at the hearing, Cudiamat’s wife testified that she and her husband were ambivalent about hiring Quijano, as they had been told that they could not “sponsor” the employee because they did not have a farm.
The wife’s testimony, according to Kaipat, “raised troubling questions that potentially implicates her and her husband in engaging in illegal job sponsorship.”
In this light, Kaipat remanded the case to the Division of Labor and requested that an agency investigation be commenced as soon as possible.
