{"id":407253,"date":"2024-03-21T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-21T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=407253"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"Ex-IPI-workers-seek-over-1M-default-judgment-vs-former-employer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/Ex-IPI-workers-seek-over-1M-default-judgment-vs-former-employer\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-IPI workers seek over $1M default judgment vs. former employer"},"content":{"rendered":"

A group of former Imperial Pacific International (CNMI) LLC workers who are suing their former employer for breach of contract over unpaid benefits have filed a motion for default judgment against the casino investor.<\/p>\n

Former IPI construction workers \u00d6zcan Gen\u00e7, Hasan G\u00f6k\u00e7e, and S\u00fcleyman K\u00f6s\u2014on behalf of other Turkish workers of IPI\u2014through lawyer Richard Miller, have filed a second motion for entry of default judgment against the casino investor pursuant to its breach of contract claim in the U.S. District Court for the NMI.<\/p>\n

The alleged breach stems from IPI\u2019s alleged failure to provide the workers the benefits they were promised under their employment contract.<\/p>\n

As relief, the plaintiffs are asking the court to grant them a default judgment amounting $1,075,658.23 for unpaid benefits they were promised in their contract.<\/p>\n

Specifically, plaintiffs claim that IPI failed to pay their health insurance premiums.<\/p>\n

\u201cMedical and dental insurance premiums were deducted from plaintiffs\u2019 paychecks, but IPI failed to pay premiums to the insurer, TakeCare, and coverage was denied. The total of premiums paid is $18,987.83,\u201d states the motion.<\/p>\n

The plaintiffs also claim that IPI failed to provide them Turkish meals as stated in their contract.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause IPI never provided a Turkish kitchen and Turkish meals, as promised, workers spent an average of $40 a day to buy their own food and prepare Turkish meals themselves at their dormitories. Requested damages are $869,120,\u201d said the motion.<\/p>\n

The former IPI workers are also seeking compensation for the airfare they were promised that should have allowed them to visit their home country.<\/p>\n

\u201cWorkers completed six months\u2019 work at IPI [and] were promised roundtrip airfare for a home visit to Turkey plus six days\u2019 paid leave. This benefit was not provided. Although plaintiffs assert that the true value of this benefit was more than $2,000 per ticket, damages have previously been stipulated to be $1,500 per ticket. The requested damages are $127,500 for 85 workers,\u201d said the motion.<\/p>\n

The plaintiffs also allege that they were not given the paid leave they were promised.<\/p>\n

\u201cWorkers were promised that if they worked for six months, they would earn six days paid leave. A total of 85 workers completed at least six months\u2019 work (13 biweekly pay periods). These workers are owed a total of $39,050.40,\u201d said the motion.<\/p>\n

Lastly, the workers want damages for the repatriation cost as required under the contract they signed with IPI.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwelve of the class members would like to request compensation for repatriation airfare and daily subsistence. The undersigned is given to understand that, previously, IPI offered to pay for repatriation airfare of all the class members and did pay for such airfare for most of those who returned to Turkey,\u201d said the motion.<\/p>\n

The court has set a hearing on the matter for April 25, at 10am before U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The U.S. District Court for the NMI in Gualo Rai.<\/p>\n

-KIMBERLY B. ESMORES
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A group of former Imperial Pacific International (CNMI) LLC workers who are suing their former…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-407253","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\/407253","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=407253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407253\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}