In response to a request from House Committee Chairman for Commerce and Tourism, Representative Ray N. Yumul, and in preparation for a public hearing announced for May 10, 2004 at the CNMI House Chambers, SGMA submitted lengthy comments on the proposed legislation H.B. 14-142, referred to as “The Alien Workers Act of 2004”.

In written comments submitted to Commerce and Tourism Committee Members on Thursday, April 22, 2004, SGMA applauded Chairman Yumul and Committee Members for “tackling the Nonresident Workers Act and the problems that have been associated with its administration.”

And, “…while some of the issues that need addressing go back for many years because of uncertainties in the law, many of the current issues are caused by enforcement discretion or lack of enforcement,” commented SGMA spokesperson Richard A. Pierce.

In its strongest, and in one of the few disagreements with H.B. 14-142, SGMA does not support the proposed legislation’s intent to eliminate transfers of employees from one employer to another. SGMA states that transfers may be of benefit to the CNMI, particularly consensual transfers. Transfers also reduce costs to employers in the form of travel related expenditures.

Rather than eliminating transfers, SGMA believes that Temporary Work Authorization (TWA) permitting should be constrained, and those cases in which TWA’s are given should be monitored more closely. SGMA offered that it is also an important principle that a TWA does not give an alien worker a license to work illegally or to otherwise violate the laws of the CNMI.

SGMA also commented on other merits of the proposed legislation, including the need to clearly define the line between Immigration’s authority to permit someone to enter the CNMI and to remain in the CNMI and to request deportation, and Labor’s authority to permit an alien to work in the CNMI. Immigration should move to deport any alien not certified by labor for employment within the CNMI.

H.B. 14-142 afforded SGMA to offer for consideration whether alien employees should be responsible for a portion of their medical expenses, as there appears to be a universal belief in the medical field that employees who shoulder a portion of expenses take better care of themselves, and are more discriminating when deciding to visit medical facilities.

SGMA proposed that all employers be responsible and liable for medical insurance or payment of its alien workers’ medical expenses, except that the employee be responsible on an annual basis for his or her first $500.00 in medical insurance premiums or the first $1,000.00 of medical expenses incurred in the CNMI. A plan was given for Labor approved deductions over time for any expenses forwarded by the employer.

SGMA offered that the Committee should visit food and housing as a component of minimum wage, as neither the CNMI nor federal law gives the respective enforcement agency the authority to alter the provision that the employer- not the employee- has the choice in payment in tender, facilities, or a combination of both.

This would mean that any employee that contracts to be housed and boarded by their employer, that employee would be bound to that contract for the duration of their contract.

“SGMA further seeks to propose mechanics to better enforce existing law. The ban on transfers seems to me to be not much more than the attempt to curb institutional enforcement problems with a three-year limit on staying in the CNMI years ago. All it would have done was drive up the cost of doing business, and essentially avoid the underlying problem of bad enforcement of more than adequate existing laws for nonresident employees in the CNMI,” stated Pierce.

SGMA is comprised of 25 of the 27 licensed garment manufacturing operations on Saipan, and represents the CNMI’s major source of funding for government operations and public services.