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Archived News Release--Caution:
information may be out of date.
For more information call: (202) 219-8211
For the second time in a year a garment manufacturer in the Northern
Mariana Islands (a U.S. territory) has paid several hundred thousand dollars in
back wages to mostly immigrants who worked 12 weeks without pay.
The Micronesian Garment Manufacturing Inc./Diorva Saipan Limited paid
$986,661 in back wages to 336 workers for violating overtime laws. In February
and April 1998, the department recovered a total of $560,000 in back wages for
427 workers at the same factory. As a result of the latest missed payrolls, the
department fined the company an additional $336,000 in civil penalties for
repeated and willful violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The company
has appealed the fine.
"These employees worked long hours for as many as 12 weeks without pay,"
said Alexis M. Herman, secretary of labor. "The fact that this company has been
forced to pay back wages twice in one year shows its disregard for the law and
disrespect for its workers."
The department's Wage and Hour Division opened the most recent
investigation in January after receiving complaints that employees, mostly
workers from China, were working without pay. In addition to substantiating
that allegation, Wage and Hour determined that the workers had been working in
excess of 40 hours per week. The Fair Labor Standards Act requires employers to
pay time-and-one-half for work over 40 in a week.
Investigators also determined that the company violated an agreement
signed with the department on April 23, 1998, settling charges that it had
intentionally failed to record work hours in excess of 40 in order to avoid
paying overtime wages.
"Obviously, this company was aware of its obligations. The department
will not hesitate to use all of the available remedies under the law to assure
that workers are paid the wages they are due," Secretary Herman said.
The department imposed the "hot goods" provision of the FLSA, which
prohibits shipment in interstate commerce of any goods made in violation of the
law. The factory's customers, Cutter& Buck of Seattle and Jones Apparel
Group USA Inc., Bristol, Pa., were contacted and cooperated with the
department. Once payment of the back wages was assured, the department lifted
its objection to the shipment of goods.
The Wage and Hour Division maintains a staff of investigators in the far
Pacific who are responsible for enforcing the child labor, overtime and record
keeping provisions of the FLSA in the Northern Mariana Islands. The
Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands government sets its own minimum
wage, which is currently $3.05 per hour. In recent years, the department has
stepped up its enforcement activities to improve compliance in the Islands.
Archived News Release--Caution:
information may be out of date.
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