So far, no complaints have been filed by any worker against Sino Great Wall International Engineering, the company working to build the multimillion-dollar Imperial Pacific Resort in Garapan.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am not aware of any filed complaints,\u201d said Labor Secretary Edith Deleon Guerrero said. <\/p>\n
The workers last week held a peaceful protest near the construction site and demanded that Sino Great Wall pay their wages. <\/p>\n
\u201c[DoL\u2019s] Enforcement Division is addressing the matter since onset regarding the workers concerns of unpaid wages. Without a question [DoL] will pursue not just this matter but any and all employment related matters for any employee(s) and with any employer doing business in the CNMI,\u201d said Deleon Guerrero.<\/p>\n
She said protecting employee rights is their No. 1 priority. \u201cIt is important that employee rights are protected which includes timely and full payment of wages.\u201d<\/p>\n
Deleon Guerrero also reminded employers that DoL considers workers\u2019 rights a serious issue. \u201cAll businesses in the CNMI are expected and shall adhere to employment laws. [DoL] considers employer responsibility and the protection of employee rights a serious matter.\u201d<\/p>\n
IPI: Issue between sub-contractor, workers<\/strong><\/p>\n IPI downplayed last Friday\u2019s protest, saying that they are not involved in the issue and it is between two parties not connected with the Hong Kong-based conglomerate. Details were limited and Sino Great Wall has not issued any statement as of press time.<\/p>\n IPI clarified in a statement that they are not involved in the dispute. \u201cIPI states that the protest involves a dispute between Sino Great Wall Int’l Engr. (CNMI) Co. LLC and its employees.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe dispute does not involve IPI. IPI reassures the CNMI that its ongoing construction of its multimillion-dollar facility is not affected and will continue as scheduled. IPI is hopeful that the parties will resolve the dispute amicably and in a timely manner.\u201d<\/p>\n Unfortunate incident<\/strong><\/p>\n Gov. Ralph DLG Torres said unfair labor practices have no place in the CNMI. \u201cIt is unfortunate that we have had to experience this on our islands. This is something that the government or anyone on the island should not tolerate.\u201d<\/p>\n IPI said they had already paid Sino Great Wall.<\/p>\n Torres advised IPI to make sure that even workers of companies they hired as subcontractors get paid. \u201cAt the end of the day [IPI] is still responsible for the situation, because that\u2019s where the permit is.\u201d<\/p>\n He is confident that IPI\u2019s Garapan hotel would be finished on time. \u201cI\u2019m confident [IPI] would finish their project.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" So far, no complaints have been filed by any worker against Sino Great Wall International…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[26,14844,6288,12497],"class_list":["post-243084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-cnmi","tag-enforcement-division","tag-hong-kong-based","tag-ipi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243084","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\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243084\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}