Imperial Pacific International, operator of an eponymous casino resort on the Pacific island of Saipan, has been ordered to pay $3.36 million in back wages, damages and fines to the U.S. Department of Labor following an investigation into labor violations at the resort, which is still under construction.
According to Marianas Variety, IPI contractors failed to pay minimum wages or overtime and did not keep satisfactory books from 2016 through 2017. Under the judgement, IPI will “amend its payroll practices and require all contractors to amend and maintain their payroll practices by paying all employees an hourly rate in compliance with minimum wage and overtime provision of the labor law.”
Saipan, in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, is a U.S.-controlled territory.
In other Saipan news, the island’s ongoing recovery from Super-Typhoon Yutu reportedly has been hampered by IPI’s problems. According to00
Reuters, the economy had improved thanks to the casino, which opened as a temporary facility in 2015. The project has contributed to around 60 percent of government revenues through taxes and operating fees. But revenues hit a wall in 2018 due in part to massive uncollected debts. And the resort, which was supposed to have opened in 2017, remains unfinished. As a result, tax revenues due to Saipan’s government have dropped by more than 70 percent.
Further complications may result because of a lengthy report in the Palm Beach Post that linked the Saipan casino to a case of missing money donated at an inaugural ball for President-elect Donald Trump. The Post reported that “thousands of dollars in donations flowed to an undisclosed source” at the ball, but no one kept financial records as required by law.
The gala was held by the Asian Pacific American Presidential Inaugural Gala. Among the organizers was former Trump campaign aide Jason Osborne, who later lobbied for a labor bill, later signed by Trump in 2018, that enabled several gala sponsors to employ Chinese and Filipino laborers for hotel and casino construction jobs. Among the sponsors was Imperial Pacific International.
The newspaper reported that the Northern Mariana Workforce Act expanded the number of visa waivers Pacific Island businesses could request to employ foreign workers. Li called the questions regarding the inaugural ball “another attack on our community.”
“I don’t want to spend time on this topic,” he told the Post. “And given how you’ve demonized our community, I don’t want to talk to you.”
