By Haidee V. Eugenio
SAIPAN, CNMI (Mariana Variety, June 4, 2007) - A garment subcontractor in Chalan Kanoa abandoned about 30 nonresident workers who have yet to be paid their back wages of US$762.50 to about US$24,000. Among them is a 30-year-old from Chiangsu, China who worked for less than three weeks before the employer ran away without paying him a single penny.
"I worked for 250 hours and she didn’t pay me anything before she ran away," said the worker, who used to iron pieces of garments for the company.
Yesterday, some of these workers told Variety that their employer, Luo Ye Mei, secretly fled Saipan after celebrating with them the Chinese New Year on February 18. She never returned to Saipan since then, they said.
The employer, according to the workers, did not inform them or the Department of Labor about her departure from Saipan on the morning of February 18.
"After celebrating the New Year, she told the workers that she would go home...