IPI: new judgement would require US$2m payment to USDOL after contempt ruling

IPI would have to pay the US Department of Labour following a second amended consent judgment.

Northern Mariana Islands.- A second amended consent judgment will require Imperial Pacific International (IPI) to pay the US Department of Labour $2.2m after it defied the court’s previous injunction in a lawsuit for violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

The Second Amended Consent Order signed by IPI and USDOL determines that IPI violated H-2B regulations, the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 and the Fair Labor Standards Act through its failure to pay the promised rate. It also breached the accompanying Fair Labor Standards Act overtime premium pay to employees hired under the H-2B programme.

If the court approves the consent judgment, $1m will be paid for back wages of the affected workers. IPI will also be ordered to pay $1m as liquidated damages, and an additional $174,894 as civil monetary penalties.

IPI breached the first consent judgment on December 1, 2019, when it failed to pay USDOL $1.02m. In May 2020, USDOL found that IPI had failed to meet its payroll obligations and violated the ruling’s injunction against violating the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Meanwhile, Jess Aquiningoc, the former head of Imperial Pacific International’s construction team, is suing the company for failing to pay him money owed. And the US Marshals Service has seized funds from IPI in order to satisfy a court judgement in favour of Red Coral Corp. The company had sued the casino operator for failing to pay leases on a 20-unit apartment complex between January 2019 and August 2019.