For Pinoys in N Marianas, collecting labor awards takes years

SAN JOSE, Saipan – Marlene Yambot, 46, loved her job sewing brand name clothes for US retailers since she came to work in Saipan in March 1996. On the day of her contract renewal in 2002, her employer – Sako Garment Manufacturing Corp. – told her that her services are no longer needed. Employers of foreign workers in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) are required by law to notify workers of contract termination at least a month before the expiration of the contract. The CNMI is a 14-island US territory in the Western Pacific whose capital of Saipan is about three hours away from Manila by place. It is home to some 10,000 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and Filipino-Americans. “Hindi ko akalain na ‘yung mga tini-train namin na mga Chinese ay kapalit na pala namin. Hindi kami inabisuhan isa o dalawang buwan bago matapos ang kontrata namin (I didn’t expect that the Chinese we were training on the job were to replace us. We were not notified one or two months before the expiration of our contracts)," Yambot, of Caloocan, told GMANews.TV on Wednesday night. A US court ordered Sako Garment Manufacturing in 2005 to pay Yambot $17,000 for violating her labor rights. Six years after she lost her job and three years after the court order, the mother of two has yet to receive a single penny from Sako Garment or the surety/bonding/insurance company that issued a statutory surety labor bond to Yambot’s employer. Yambot is one of the 127 foreign workers who filed a class action suit against the CNMI Department of Labor and its three top officials over uncollected proceeds of labor bonds amounting to $557,977. Many of the 127 members of the historic class suit are OFWs whose labor cases were long decided by the courts or the labor department but who have yet to collect money due to them, such as unpaid wages. The lawsuit aims to compel the CNMI Department of Labor to enforce administrative orders directing firms to pay back wages and other obligations to workers through insurance bond claims. The suit is in response to the department’s recent policy of telling foreign workers to pursue payment on unpaid orders in small claims court rather than through the government’s labor offices. Irene Tantiado, president of the United Workers Movement NMI, said she was “pleased that finally, the class action lawsuit has been filed." “I know Atty. Robert Myers Jr. worked hard to come up with good arguments for this case. This is the first of its kind and we pray that these 127 nonresident workers who joined the class will get their money," Tantiado told GMANews.TV. Test case Tantiado, of Cebu in the central Philippines, said since this is a test case, “if we win, the victory will give hope to all those who are holding on to unpaid administrative orders." The class suit named as defendants CNMI Labor Secretary Gil M. San Nicolas, Labor Deputy Secretary Cinta Kaipat and Labor Director Barry Hirshbein, together with 20 “Does" that are surety or bonding or insurance companies that issued statutory surety labor bonds to employers of guest workers. Lawyer Robert Myers, counsel for the foreign workers, said the Department of Labor’s refusal to enforce the administrative orders is in direct violation of the authority for the enforcement of the bond obligations that have been legislatively vested with Labor director. The unlawful scheme between Labor and sureties in the CNMI will result in the denial of justice, Myers said. “No one, except Labor and the sureties involved in the scheme to prevent collection and remittance of the proceeds of the labor bonds, benefits from such an unfair and prejudiced scheme," he added. Finger-pointing But labor officials have said they will not enforce the surety’s obligation, unless in very limited circumstances, and that the specified amounts on each bond is solely for repatriation cases. Labor has also said the Department of Commerce is the agency responsible for bonding companies, and that Labor was not given any licensing, disciplinary or collection authority over bonding companies. While the finger pointing over responsibility to ensure workers obtain money due them continues, class members have already gone back to the Philippines, Bangladesh or Thailand. Yambot said if the CNMI government fails to help them, maybe the workers can tap the leftover funds with the now defunct Garment Oversight Board, which was supposed to distribute court judgments to former garment workers over labor and human rights violations in connection with a Saipan garment industry settlement agreement. The independent Garment Oversight Board’s existence ended on Oct. 31, 2008, but its checking account will not be closed until Dec. 31, 2008. The board reported that it still has in its possession $883,520.11 in grand total of class lawsuit settlement funds. “Kung makuha ko iyong $17,000 na para sa akin, uuwi na ako sa Pilipinas at magnenegosyo na lang ako (If I get the $17,000 owed to me, I will go home to the Philippines and put up a business)," Yambot said. Some of her former colleagues at the garment factory have yet to collect up to $20,000 from Sako Garment or the bonding companies. “Lahat kami nananalangin na makuha na naming ang pera naming lalo’t naisampa na ang kaso (We are also praying that we’d be able to get our money especially now that the class suit has been filed)," she said. - GMANews.TV