Starting June, Imperial Pacific International (CNMI) LLC will start repatriating 200 CNMI-Only Transitional Worker employees who are on the non-construction side, according to IPI interim chief executive officer Ray N. Yumul last Tuesday.<\/p>\n
In an interview during a break in the House of Representatives Committee on Gaming\u2019s meeting, Yumul also stated that under the U.S. Department of Labor\u2019s settlement, IPI had agreed to make payments to all employees who have claims.<\/p>\n
Except for one, all Mongolian workers have already left the CNMI and that the next batch to be repatriated will be 200 CW workers sometime this June, Yumul said. <\/p>\n
He said they submitted petitions to renew the CW-1 last September, but they have not received any official response from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.<\/p>\n
CW-1 workers may continue employment with the same employer for up to 240 days beginning on the expiration of their authorized period of stay pending adjudication of the petition. <\/p>\n
Yumul said he has already notified the CW workers that the 240-day period is set to expire on May 30, 2021, and that it is with \u201ca heavy heart\u201d to inform them that their employment with IPI will end on that day. <\/p>\n
He said they anticipate USCIS not to act on the extension petition that IPI had filed on the CW workers\u2019 behalf prior to the scheduled expiration date\u2014hence \u201cwe have to start repatriating them by June.\u201d<\/p>\n
IPI informed the CW workers that prior to May 30, they will contact them to provide them information about their airline tickets and payroll. <\/p>\n
He said the CW workers are currently on furlough. <\/p>\n
One of the CW workers, who requested not to be identified, said they are willing to leave the CNMI if they are paid three-fourths of their wages as guaranteed in their employment contract. The worker estimates that IPI owes him $7,000. <\/p>\n
As to IPI\u2019s payment of owed wages to some former and furloughed guest workers, Yumul said that under the U.S. Department of Labor settlement, IPI cannot choose which ones would be paid first. <\/p>\n
\u201cI cannot pull out one group to pay and not be equal because it\u2019s a scheduled payment. So they\u2019re all going to be paid through the settlement,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The CEO said IPI did fail to make timely payments to the workers in the past, and all of that was corrected under the settlement. \u201cNow there\u2019s a settlement and within the settlement, it also includes the benefits,\u201d Yumul said. \u201cSo all of that is already being dealt with.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the settlement covers everybody that worked at IPI and has claims.<\/p>\n
As to the issue of \u201cstranded guest workers,\u201d Yumul said it\u2019s not that they\u2019re stranded; they don\u2019t want to leave because they are afraid that they might not get paid. \u201cBut they\u2019ve been identified. U.S. Department of Labor knows who they are. We have their addresses,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Yumul said they don\u2019t even want to hold the settlement money because they want to give it to the relevant governmental agency to make the payments for them.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t want to get caught up in being blamed for them, for example, not receiving the payments, because it\u2019s already been memorialized in the [court] order,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, as to why the Commonwealth Casino Commission has yet to recognize him as IPI\u2019s CEO, Yumul said it\u2019s because IPI has not paid its casino regulatory fee of $3.1 million yet. He said CCC does not want to act on his application although he submitted all the relevant application and supporting documents. <\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, it\u2019s non-issue because the casino is not operating,\u201d Yumul said. <\/p>\n
Yumul attended Tuesday\u2019s House Committee on Gaming meeting, but the committee did not call him to testify.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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