DOL hosts COVID-19 response workshop

The CNMI Department of Labor last week hosted its first workshop catered to disseminating COVID-19 related information to employers as a response to the recent virus outbreak.

In an interview with Eugene Tebuteb, DOL director of Employment Services, the workshop held last week was more of an informational workshop to disseminate information regarding COVID 19.

“It’s really about how we can help each other at this time and to give out more information for employees who are affected by COVID-19 through layoffs or having a reduction of work hours,” he said.

Tebuteb explained that the workshop is directed toward the business community, specifically employers.

“We’ve invited our business community to join us, we have a lot of information to disseminate and we’re mainly focusing on topics such as our local labor regulations and, CW-1 regulations, the job trends that we see out there, and that because we’re responding to the impact of COVID-19. We’re beginning to see layoffs from certain companies so we wanted to sort of reach out to the employers and give them the information that they need right now,” Tebuteb said.

The guest speakers of the workshop were Gloria Cavanagh of the Hotel Association of the Northern Mariana Islands and Esther Muña of the Commonwealth Health Care Corp.

Tebuteb said Cavanagh was invited to discuss COVID-19’s severe impact on the CNMI’s hotel occupancy rate since the outbreak.

“Gloria mainly talked about the hotel pccupancy rates and how they are diminishing, but I think the central theme here is although we are experiencing these impacts from COVID19, we’re keeping our hopes intact so we can combat it that way,” he said.

Muña, on the other hand, briefly discussed the countermeasures CHCC has taken in preparation of COVID-19.

“Esther talked briefly about COVID-19 and the counter-measures we can take so we can avoid having the COVID19 and all of that. She also provided us with updates worldwide regarding COVID19,” he said.

Tebuteb said that this is the first time DOL has done such a workshop as a response to a virus outbreak however, DOL has sponsored clinics in the past to disseminate information regarding other major situations that affect the Marianas.

“It’s basically an info session where we reach out to employers regarding any of the current events no matter what it may be. Several months ago or probably a year ago, we talked about CW-1 regulations and how that affected workforce and now we’re discussing COVID-19. Stay strong CNMI, we’re going to have to be more resilient, like we’ve always been,” he said.