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DOL’s San Nicolas warns abusive alien employees
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Posted on Jan 18 2006
Acting Department of Labor Secretary Gil M. San Nicolas issued a warning yesterday to alien workers who abuse the Labor system so they could prolong their stay in the Commonwealth.
“We will go after those employees who are taking advantage of the system,” San Nicolas told the Saipan Tribune.
San Nicolas said the department is here to assist nonresident workers, which is Labor’s top priority, but they will not hesitate to act against abusive alien workers.
“Again, if they are abusing the system, and we do determine that, then obviously we do have to request that they be repatriated,” he stressed.
The acting secretary said the department has been receiving a lot of complaints, particularly about Chinese workers.
San Nicolas explained that when a complaint comes in, the department needs to take that complaint and investigate it to determine whether the case that has been filed is true or not. He said the case would then be brought to a hearing.
“Maybe this person’s complaint is not totally true or accurate; we would bring that in front of the hearing officer,” he said.
San Nicolas said their hearing officers have been issuing some decisions based on frivolous complaints.
“And again we are not trying to stop anyone from filing a complaint. We are just saying our doors are here, if you have a legitimate complaint, we would look into it,” he said.
If they determine that the complainants are just using the process to prolong or maintain their stay in the Commonwealth, then that’s “not going to work anymore.”
“We are going to make sure that all legitimate complaints are entertained. And all complaints that are not legitimate, that we call frivolous, will be determined,” he said.
