Fitial orders garment hiring stopped
Saipan Tribune, Micronesia
By Agnes E. Donato
Reporter
Gov. Benigno R. Fitial has ordered the Department of Labor to stop garment factories from hiring any new workers.
Forecasting the “fast-tracked demise†of the garment industry to follow the new federal wage hike law, the governor said that no additional garment workers should be allowed into the CNMI until those displaced are hired or sent home.
“The proposal for stopping the entry of new garment workers has been discussed for some time. I think it is time for us to act to make sure that no new workers come into the Commonwealth until the pool of non-resident workers created by the closures (and imminent closure) of garment factories are absorbed or repatriated,†the governor said in a memorandum on Friday.
He ordered the Labor secretary to promulgate emergency regulations to implement the new policy. Emergency regulations take effect immediately and are not subject to the 30-day public comment period required for permanent regulations.
Fitial noted that there is a backlog of about four months’ applications still waiting processing at the Labor Department. He said all the applications for garment workers should be pullout from the files and held until the end of the fiscal year.
He also instructed the department to enforce rigorously the current regulation that provides no job vacancy announcement can be certified until the employer shows a good-faith attempt to hire non-resident workers already in the CNMI.
“Each employer who wants to hire a non-resident worker should post a notice at Top Fashion, many of whose employees are looking for work or should consult the list of Concorde workers who are looking for work,†he said.
He also told Labor to ensure all JVAs for garment workers and similar unskilled positions typically filled by foreign workers are published in the Chinese newspaper as well as one of the English-language papers.
Furthermore, he said Labor should review current operations to ensure the Division of Employment Services keeps a listing of foreign workers on island who can legally seek jobs here.
