February 4, 2005 Press Release

U.S. Labor Conducts Training for SGMA Factories

Richard Hamilton of U.S. Labor's Wage & Hour Compliance stresses a point as accounting and management personnel of the Saipan Garment Manufacturers Association listen attentively during a training on the Fair Labor Standards Act¹s Regulations Part 541 at the SGMA offices in Gualo Rai, Saipan on Feb. 3, 2005.

United States Department of Labor- Wage & Hour Compliance officials, Richard Hamilton and Luis Cabuhat, conducted training for several Saipan Garment Manufacturers Association (SGMA) accounting and management personnel at the SGMA conference rooms on Thursday, February 3, 2005.

Hamilton and Cabuhat detailed the Fair Labor Standards Act’s Regulations Part 541: Defining and Delimiting the Exemptions for Executive, Administrative, Professional, Outside Sales and Computer Employees; Final Rule through US DOL’s continuing FY 2005 Educational Outreach Program.

A power point presentation was given, with questions and answers coming from any of the factories’ staff. Copies of the Regulations, and copies of the power point were distributed by the labor officials, in an effort to further maintain compliance within the Saipan garment industry sector on wage and salary practices.

SGMA’s spokesperson, Richard A. Pierce, thanked Hamilton and Cabuhat for their forthrightness and reports on any remaining problems within the sector, “We are extremely happy to hear from US Labor that halfway through the FY 2005 Enforcement Initiative there have been only two cases of violations of Part 541, where hourly wage earners were improperly being paid by salary instead of by the hour.”

The SGMA and US DOOL officials acknowledged that there have been some cases of factories delaying their payroll issuance primarily due to the difficult financial strain some of the smaller factories are experiencing at this point in time.

With the elimination of quota restrictions on foreign Member countries of the World Trade Organization, and with global competitiveness at an all time high, Saipan factories are having an extremely difficult time making ends meet.

Although certainly not a willful violation, late wage payments by factory management are violations under federal and local wage practice laws, and can subject the manufacturers to more serious repercussions if late wages become a regular pattern.

Pierce stated, “US Labor has been particularly understanding with what the factories are going through now. We work together to get things accomplished when there instances of wage and salary violations. We all know now that these violations are simply late wages, not anyone trying to cheat a factory employee out of what they have worked hard for.”

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