Imperial Pacific International, the only casino operator in the Commonwealth of the Mariana Islands, says it will finish construction of its Imperial Pacific Resort by the end of the year, despite a labor shortage.
IPI sent home hundreds of skilled Filipino laborers on H-2B visas after the U.S. Department of Homeland Security barred them from working on the island. The CNMI is a U.S.-controlled territory.
According to the Saipan Tribune, only 264 individuals including 15 management staff are currently working at the in-progress casino-hotel. That includes 226 skilled workers from Chinese Taipei; 12 from sub-contractor USA Fanter Corp.; and 11 from the Czech Republic.
“Everybody knows that we have been facing labor issues as workers from the Philippines are barred based on a new U.S. policy removing the Philippines from the H-2B working permit,” said Eric Poon, Imperial Pacific’s vice president for construction. “We’ve lost over 500 workers just within a month. It is difficult for us to accept, but we have to face it. Right now, we are working with our human resources to figure out on how to bring more workers in and continue the rest of the project.”
The deadline to complete the project has been pushed back repeatedly, but Poon assured the Commonwealth Casino Commission that IPI still expects to finish the resort by December 31. CCC Commissioner Alvaro Santos was doubtful, and said to Poon, “You only have 226 workers, is this forecast accurate based on your issue? Are you still confident that it can be completed by December 2019?”
“We hope things won’t get any worse,” Poon replied. “We’re hoping we can get H-2B workers from Philippines back as soon as possible. It depends on the approval of the U.S. government and we are also working with the CNMI government closely with this.”
He said the company hopes to find workers from other countries who are eligible for the H-2B visa program. “Obviously, if we have more workers, that would be great and we could move the project more forward. What we have now, we try to achieve with that number.”
