Money for displaced garment workers identified

The Attorney General’s Office and a garment manufacturer have asked the Superior Court to allow the use of a portion of a settlement fund in a civil action for the benefit of displaced garment workers on Saipan.

Special assistant attorney general David Hutton said the move, if approved by the court, would help alleviate the conditions of displaced garment workers after the closure of at least three garment companies on Saipan.

Hutton, the AGO’s newly appointed special attorney for garment issues, reached an agreement with the Marianas Garment Manufacturing, Inc. to finally end the 13-year-old lawsuit by the government against the company. This development is expected to benefit garment workers who have recently been displaced from their jobs by allowing the government to tap into unused funds in the $1-million MGM settlement.

Records showed that then Labor Director Joaquin Torres sued MGM in 1992 for alleged failure to comply with the Nonresident Workers Act and Minimum Wage and Hour Act. That company is not the same one as the existing MGM garment firm.

Although the defendant garment firm maintained that it did not exploit its workers, it settled the case for $1 million. The company made an initial $400,000 payment to then Labor and Immigration Secretary Mark Zachares in 1997 and an additional $613,880 in 1998. Proceeds of the settlement got deposited into a savings account with the Bank of Saipan.

MGM also provided information on the identities and whereabouts of some 400 former MGM workers in China. The AGO’s representative claimed to have distributed approximately 80-percent of the settlement fund to the workers, but some of them could not be found, leaving the remaining amount undisbursed.

Hutton and MGM attorney Michael Dotts jointly asked the court last week to allow the use of undisbursed funds for the benefit of recently displaced garment workers, if the other MGM workers could not be located again. Hutton said the government would attempt to locate those workers in China again within two weeks.

Originally, Hutton said the undisbursed amount only totaled about $234,000, but the money has now ballooned to $404,000.

“It was attorney general Pam Brown’s idea to reopen this case and try what we could. This could not have happened without the cooperation, expertise, skills and knowledge of Michael Dotts of the O’Connor Berman Dotts and Banes law firm,” Hutton said.

Anticipating the court’s favorable decision on the joint request, Hutton said the currently displaced garment workers would stand to benefit from the money.