Pinays in Saipan sue former employer for discrimination

GARAPAN, Saipan – Five female workers from the Philippines filed a lawsuit against their former employer for not renewing their employment contracts in 2004 allegedly due to their old age and national origin.

Nenita G. Africa, Adona D. Carino, Emma S. Escobar, Emelita S. Magayaga and Asuncion Sapo, through attorney Steven Woodruff, filed the discrimination complaint in the US District Court against Commonwealth Garment Manufacturing Inc., doing business as Mirage Saipan Co. Ltd.

Magayaga, Escobar and Africa also stated in the complaint that during their period of employment with Mirage Saipan, they were repeatedly subjected by their Chinese supervisors to "various forms of ridicule and harassments" on account of their age.

The complainants added that Mirage Saipan terminated most of the Filipino contract workers but most of the Chinese workers’ employment contracts were renewed.

Some Chinese, the complainants said, were hired from other garment factories on Saipan and from China.

The garment factory, however, claimed that the five Filipino workers could not meet the daily production demand, which led to the termination of their employment.

The workers started working for Mirage Saipan in 2003 and 2004.

The company gave the workers notices terminating their employment effective 10 days after July 19, 2004.

The workers said they were surprised about the termination because the garment factory had not previously informed them about any performance issue, specifically any failure to meet the demand of production as asserted by the company.

To their knowledge, “there was no performance evaluation conducted that could have been the basis of their termination."

The workers’ causes of actions include national origin discrimination, age discrimination, breach of contract, breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, and intentional infliction of emotional distress against defendant.

They want the federal court to award them their lost earnings and lost benefits, and punitive damages.

The workers are also seeking “exemplary award and punitive damages, compensatory damages and damages for mental suffering, anguish, humiliation, loss of enjoyment of life, and other damages according to law, as well as attorney’s fees, cost of suit and other relief."

This is the latest in a number of discrimination complaints filed by Filipino workers against their current and former employers on Saipan, the capital of the US Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. - Haidee V. Eugenio, GMANews.TV

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