13 ex-workers of Sako Corp. allowed to seek new employers

The Department of Labor’s Division of Administrative Hearings has allowed 13 former workers of the defunct garment manufacturer Sako Corp. to transfer to employers.

Hearing Officer Maya B. Kara authorized the workers to transfer until Jan. 15, 2006 within or without the garment industry.

Kara said the transfer employers should file an application for a one-year labor permit for the applicants within that time.

The workers are Mostafa Kamal, Sudarat Phonsan, Vivian Acabal, Khairul Hasan Bhuiyan, MD Alamagir Hossain, Jesusa Valdez Manese, Teasanthiah Duangta, Imelda R. Rubis, Gloria Castillo, Mobarak Mobarak, Mariel San Joaquin Sapa, Dolores Aliman, and Arsenio V. Bumacod.

Applicants who do not wish to seek a transfer employer are entitled to be repatriated to the country of their origin. They should register with Labor for repatriation no later than Jan. 15, 2006, said Kara in her administrative order.

Those who are unable to provide proof of the filing of a labor permit application to transfer employer within the 45-day period, shall be required to depart from the CNMI, she added.

Kara said the primary responsibility of repatriation rests with the last employer of record.

“In the event that the last employer or record is unable to fulfill its repatriation obligation, the issuer of the employer’s bond shall be liable for the costs of repatriation upon demand by the Department of Labor,” she said.

The government, the hearing officer said, should use its best efforts to repatriate the workers if the sureties default on the bond.

Labor records show that the 13 were the charging parties in the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s complaint for discriminatory labor practices against Sako filed in federal court in Sept. 2004.

In April 2005, the federal court issued a default judgment against Sako in the EEOC case.

Kara determined that these employees were not equally at fault concerning the matters that led to the filing of the EEOC claim.

Kara said these workers prevailed in their EEOC claim by means of a default and therefore entitled to and should be granted the opportunity to transfer to another permanent employers.

In March 2005, the Attorney General’s Office filed 18 criminal charges against Sako Corp. and its two officials for failure to pay tax to the CNMI government in 2002 and 2005. (Ferdie de la Torre)