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Employer to be subject to regular check
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Posted on Jul 10 2005
The Department of Labor has approved the hiring of a new alien worker on the condition that the employer would be subject to periodic assessment for compliance with wage payment terms in the contract.
In an administrative order, Labor hearing officer Herbert Soll reversed the denial of an employment application filed by employer Mii T. Telkopua to hire Yang Yinsong from China.
Soll related that Telkopua had sought to bring Yang to work in the CNMI as a house worker, but he could not because he had no vacancy to replace.
Soll cited a labor law requirement that a vacancy in an existing position must exist before a nonresident worker can be brought to the Commonwealth. Only the governor can grant a waiver of this requirement.
Since Yang is a trained nurse in China, Telkopua had offered to hire her as such on a higher salary. The employer received an exemption for the employment of a nurse.
The Division of Labor had denied the application nonetheless, based on “well founded, but unwritten, policy of the department” that disallowed the hiring of a nurse under unspecified circumstances present in the case.
“However, [Labor] was convinced that the employer was innocent of any knowledge regarding the special circumstances and had been unintentionally misinformed of his inability to employ Ms. Yang,” Soll said.
Labor then reconsidered the denial and recommended the approval of the application on the condition that strict scrutiny would be applied to the full payment of Yang’s contractual wages.
Soll concurred and entered the decision reversing the earlier denial of the permit application.
“The application shall be processed with the understanding that the records of the employer may be periodically inspected to determine that he is in compliance with the wage payment required by the contract,” Soll said. (Agnes E. Donato)
