Workers to pursue class suit over bonds

Alien workers are poised to file a lawsuit against the CNMI Department of Labor in a bid to compel it to enforce scores of administrative orders directing companies to pay back wages owed them through insurance bond claims.

Labor activist Irene Tantiado, who stepped down from her post as the president of the United Coalition of Workers earlier this week, is organizing the suit with the aid of an attorney, she said in an interview Friday.

“I’m seeing some real hope that we can help these workers,” Tantiado said, adding that she plans to gather potential plaintiffs for the suit in a meeting slated for Tuesday at American Memorial Park.

The CNMI Department of Labor is tasked with reviewing workers claims connected to unpaid wages and so-called “surety bonds”—a brand of insurance bonds that employers are required by law to purchase for foreign workers that pays them should the businesses where they work falter, Tantiado said. These bonds often go unpaid, she added, and workers who pursue payment of them have faced an array of bureaucratic obstacles.

Labor’s decisions on the unpaid bonds are issued in the form of an administrative order, yet labor activists have said previously that it has ceased enforcing those orders, directing workers instead to pursue their claims in court. Tantiado said this stance violates the law.

“According to the law, Labor is supposed to enforce those orders,” she said. “Labor has stopped doing that but that is part of their job.”

The strategy for the lawsuit, she added, involves bringing together every worker with an administrative order issued by Labor related to an unpaid surety bond to seek a Supreme Court order directing the department to take enforcement action.

To take part in the suit, workers must have an administrative order issued by Labor that is not more than six years old, have a surety bond issued by an insurance company that is still in operation and not have any current criminal charges or be in any other “trouble,” Tantiado said.

Responding to news of the pending suit, CNMI Attorney General Matt Gregory reserved comment until the litigation is filed, saying he had yet to see a complaint.

Charles Reyes, the governor’s spokesman, said problems linked to unpaid surety bonds are “a long-standing issue” and noted that the Department of Commerce is generally charged with regulating insurers.

“I’m sure that we can work this out and if there’s something that Labor must enforce, I’m sure they would,” Reyes said. “We would like to resolve this before it gets to the point of a lawsuit.”