An alien worker has filed a discrimination lawsuit in federal court against defunct garment manufacturer Poong-In Saipan Inc.<\/p>\n
Reynaldo L. Garcia, a Filipino, alleged that because of his national origin, Poong-In did not renew his employment contract and instead hired some Chinese nationals.<\/p>\n
Attorney Stephen C. Woodruff, counsel for Garcia, argued that the company\u2019s discharging plaintiff on account of his national origin constitutes an unlawful employment practice in violation of U.S. law.<\/p>\n
Garcia asked the U.S. District Court for the NMI to order the defendant to pay him damages, lost earnings, attorney\u2019s fees, and court costs.<\/p>\n
Woodruff stated in the complaint that Garcia was hired by Poong-In as a maintenance mechanic sometime in 2004. <\/p>\n
Garcia remained with the company until his contract expired on July 9, 2006, after which he was not renewed.<\/p>\n
Woodruff said that during Garcia\u2019s employment with Poong-In, he was variably assigned as a packer, mechanic, and security guard. Garcia\u2019s was last assigned as a packer at the packing section.<\/p>\n
\u201cDefendant freely reshuffled, assigned and moved its workers from one work assignment to another work assignment, such as from sewer to packer and vice-versa,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The lawyer noted that Garcia performed his job in a satisfactory and exemplary manner.<\/p>\n
The factory\u2019s resident manager, Woodruff said, even cited Garcia as being \u201ca well rounded employee\u201d who \u201chas a very positive attitude\u201d and \u201cwho can speak fluently in different kind of languages such as Chinese, English and Filipino.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDespite his stellar work performance and exceptional qualifications, on June 16, 2006, defendant informed him in writing that his employment contract was not going to be renewed. No reason was stated in the written notice,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Woodruff said that when asked by plaintiff why his contract was not being renewed, general manager Mr. Byung Bok Lee told him that \u201cthere are too many people in the packing section.\u201d<\/p>\n
At that time, Garcia was the only Filipino of the more than 50 workers at the packing section, a majority of whom, if not all, were Chinese nationals.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlaintiff was informed that most, if not all, of the Chinese workers assigned at the packing section were subsequently renewed by defendant,\u201d Woodruff said.<\/p>\n
He said approximately 15 Chinese workers assigned in various sections and whose employment contracts were expiring around the expiration date of plaintiff\u2019s contract were all renewed.<\/p>\n
After Garcia\u2019s discharge, the company hired more workers from China, Woodruff said.<\/p>\n
The lawyer said that Poong-In\u2019s reason for terminating Garcia that \u201cthere are too many people in the packing section\u201d was not true because after his non-renewal, Poong-In renewed most, if not all, of the Chinese workers assigned with him at the packing section, and even hired more workers from China.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reason offered by defendant for not renewing plaintiff\u2019s employment contract was pretextual because plaintiff was actually discharged due to his national origin,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
On Jan. 28, 2008, the Afetnas-based Poong-In shut down its factory, rendering over 100 alien workers jobless.<\/p>\n
Like the other factories that also closed, Poong-In\u2019s reasons for folding were the rising cost of labor, the increased competition from China and other Asian countries, and the increased costs of doing business in the CNMI.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An alien worker has filed a discrimination lawsuit in federal court against defunct garment manufacturer Poong-In Saipan Inc.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-121052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121052\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}