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Category Blog Nagoya Star settles with former dancers
Category Blog Nagoya Star settles with former dancers
Friday, 28 September 2007 00:00
ASC Inc., owner of the defunct Nagoya Star Night Club and Karaoke Lounge in Garapan, yesterday offered to settle for a yet-to -be determined amount with four former employees who filed a complaint against their former employer for labor violations that included illegal barracks confinements, unpaid lady’s drink commissions, unpaid and delayed wages, reduced work hours without approval from the Department of Labor, and illegal deductions.“We are not after the money. All we want is for the truth to come out. Our former employer committed a lot of violations and we want people to know that but we agreed to the settlement so we can all move on,” one of the employees told Variety after the hearing.
The employees, who paid $700 in recruitment fees which were deducted from their wages, included one who was only 18 when she arrived on Saipan to work for Nagoya Star as a strip dancer.
Yesterday was supposed to be the second day of the administrative hearing on the four former dancers’ labor case against Nagoya Star but the club offered to enter into a settlement, which was agreed to by the dancers, represented by the Division of Labor, and assisted by the Federal Labor Ombudsman’s Office.
Labor hearing officer Jerry Cody, who presided over the hearing on Labor Compliance Agency Case 07-066-04, noted the likelihood of tapping insurance bonds to pay the workers as part of the settlement.
Bonds provide a maximum of $1,500 for each worker.
Tim Bellas, counsel for Nagoya Star and its former manager Angelina Cabrera, said the company does not have money to continue the process so it decided to settle the case instead.
Of the allegations raised by the workers, Bellas said the employer admits to “some wages owed” and unpaid lady’s drink commissions.
The settlement agreement, which Bellas will be drafting, will reflect the Division of Labor’s recommendations that ASC Corp./Nagoya Star and Cabrera should be permanently barred from employing nonresidents in the CNMI.
Bellas said he should be done with the draft settlement agreement by Oct. 15, when it will be signed by the workers and approved by the hearing officer.
Cody said the four workers will be given 45-day transfer relief but until an administrative order is issued, they won’t be allowed to start working for another employer unless they have secured temporary work authorizations.
The consent agreement, which was reached in the middle of an administrative hearing, is seen as a win-win situation for both parties which would otherwise have to go through a long series of hearings including the testimony of witnesses, cross examination of witnesses and motions.
Bellas, during the hearing, said the employer also agreed to pay for medical expenses incurred by the workers during their employment with Nagoya Star.
Cabrera, during the lunch break Wednesday, told Variety she didn’t intend to run away from her obligation to pay the workers their salaries. She said she had to go home because her mother was very sick.
After a labor complaint was filed, Nagoya Star paid a total of $4,345.09 to cover back wages and the former workers’ last pay period in April.
During the first day of the hearing, the workers testified that for several months, 12 of the female dancers had to share one room with two male employees of the club. They slept on separate bunk beds. This single room, which is next door to the club on the second floor of a two-story building on Middle Road in Garapan, served as their barracks. The stairs had a gate kept locked for hours and the dancers had no key.
The workers were required by their former employer to remain at the barracks even during their hours off from work.
The results of an investigation conducted by Labor in connection with the workers’ allegations were contained in the six-page determination, notice of violation and notice of transfer hearing dated May 31.
Among other things, Labor found that Nagoya Star failed to pay its employees for 40 hours a week, caused unreasonable delays in payments of its workers’ wages, made other agreements with the workers without Labor’s approval, made unauthorized deductions from workers’ pay without providing a receipt, and failed to pay wages for all hours that the employees were restricted or confined to the barracks such that they could not use their non-work time effectively.
