Garment workers who got checks likely to get more
Saipan Tribune, Micronesia
By Ferdie de la Torre
Reporter
Garment workers who already got their share of the settlement money from the CNMI garment industry will likely receive more from the $2.1 million that remain undistributed.
Garment Oversight Board chair Timothy H. Bellas told Saipan Tribune that under GOB’s plan-subject to the district court’s approval-they will pay about 600 additional garment workers who claim they did not get any checks.
Under the plan, Bellas said, these 600 additional people will be paid out of the $2.15 million that the plaintiffs’ counsel transferred to GOB pursuant to a court order.
He said the amounts that these 600 people will get are the same as those checks issued before to 29,000 people.
“And then whatever is left over after that are going to be distributed equally to the rest of the workers,†the former judge said.
Bellas said a worker who got a $72 check and another who got a $700 check would get an equal amount in the planned distribution.
“So we just divide the number of people by the amount of money left,†he explained.
The GOB chair said the last step of the plan is how to deal with part of the $2.1 million that will come back.
He said they are planning to establish a garment worker trust fund that is intended to take care of any garment worker issue. Bellas said the trust fund will help people affected by closure of garment factories.
“Then at the end of a certain period of time, whether it’s one year, or two years or three years, if the money hasn’t been exhausted then we’re just going to donate it to a charitable institution and close the account,†he said.
Bellas said there is no need to keep the GOB open until all the money is spent
“We’re just going to keep a trust account and then at the end, I’ll just file an accounting with the district court saying how much the money was spent. If there is a leftover, here is what I proposed to do with the rest of the money and we get another approval from the judge,†he said.
GOB started mailing Wednesday the checks to 74 garment workers who are still on Saipan. These 74 persons are among the 356 workers who are all entitled to receive checks totaling $53,000.
The check amounts range from a minimum of $72.27 to a maximum of $799.50, according to Bellas.
These 356 workers will get replacement checks because of various prior problems and are not new money for the garment workers.
Of the 356, a total of 101 other people are on island and were already given letters for verification purposes. The 109 others are now in China, the Philippines, Guam, and the U.S. mainland. The remaining 72 workers have no complete addresses available to GOB.
GOB was set up pursuant to the $20-million settlement in that class action to oversee the monitoring program of the garment industry.
The San Francisco-based Gilardi and Co., which was tasked to distribute the money to eligible garment workers, had informed the district court that it successfully mailed out almost 29,800 checks to individuals located in 17 countries.
Gilardi said 13,725 checks were cashed, for a total distribution of $2.28 million out of an initial net fund of $3.98 million.
