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Archived News Release--Caution:
information may be out of date.
For more information call: 202) 693-4650
Two Saipan-based garment companies were sentenced on May 30
after pleading guilty in November 1999 to criminal contempt charges for
violating a 1998 consent judgment entered by the U.S. District Court for the
Northern Mariana Islands that ordered them to pay legally-required wages to
their employees.
As a result of the Federal government's crackdown on labor
and employment law violations in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana
Islands (CNMI), Micronesian Garment Manufacturing, Inc. and Diorva Saipan, Ltd.
(MGM/Diorva) have been sentenced to each pay a fine of $100,000 and serve five
years probation.
"The United States is serious about ending worker
exploitation in the CNMI," said Secretary of Labor Alexis M. Herman. "We will
not hesitate to pursue criminal action in cases where companies disregard court
orders."
A U.S. Labor Department investigation found that MGM/Diorva
underpaid workers by almost $1 million from November 1998 through January 1999,
although both companies in April 1998 had been ordered by the court to comply
with overtime and record keeping requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act
(FLSA).
The April 1998 court order involved FLSA violations
committed by MGM/Diorva from July 1996 to about March 1998. It resulted in the
payment of $560,000 to 427 employees.
The Labor Department's subsequent investigation, however,
revealed that 336 employees were owed $986,661.05 in unpaid wages, including
overtime. MGM/Diorva paid the back wages, and they admitted to knowingly and
willfully violating the April 1998 consent judgment and to not paying workers
their lawful wages.
In March 1999, the Labor Department assessed MGM a civil
money penalty of $336,000 for repeated and willful violations of the FLSA,
stemming from the November 1998 - January 1999 violations. The company has
appealed the fine.
Saipan is the capital of the Commonwealth of the Northern
Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory. The child labor, overtime pay and record
keeping provisions of the FLSA apply to employers on the islands but under the
existing covenant the island government sets and enforces its own minimum wage,
which is $3.05 per hour.
Archived News Release--Caution:
information may be out of date.
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