{"id":35430,"date":"2022-11-15T12:42:52","date_gmt":"2022-11-15T15:42:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=35430"},"modified":"2026-04-23T02:58:39","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T05:58:39","slug":"cnmi-court-approves-ipi-agreement-with-turkish-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/cnmi-court-approves-ipi-agreement-with-turkish-workers","title":{"rendered":"CNMI Court approves IPI agreement with Turkish workers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Chief Justice Ramona Manglona has approved a Fair Labour Standards Act settlement between the casino operator and Turkish construction workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Northern Mariana Islands.-&nbsp;<strong>Imperial Pacific International (IPI)&nbsp;<\/strong>looks to have settled at least one of the lawsuits it&#8217;s been facing. The casino operator has delivered on an agreement with&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/turkish-workers-sue-ipi-for-discrimination\" target=\"_blank\">three former Turkish construction workers<\/a>&nbsp;who were demanding an unspecified amount of damages and a jury trial after accusing the company of discrimination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Chief judge <strong>Ramona V. Manglona&nbsp;<\/strong>had approved the<strong> Fair Labour Standards Act (FLSA) settlement <\/strong>between the parties and granted the plaintiffs\u2019 motion for attorney\u2019s fees and costs. IPI paid costs totalling $480,000 to plaintiffs&#8217; attorneys on October 5, so Judge Manglona has ruled that satisfaction with the FLSA ruling will be recorded in the lawsuit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the lawsuit, in the period that IPI hired the plaintiffs to work at its Garapan Palace casino, it also hired other construction workers, including Taiwanese workers, under the H-2B visa programme.&nbsp;The Turkish workers alleged that the Taiwanese workers had the same or similar level of skills, qualifications and experience but received significantly higher wages, in some cases nearly twice as much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the lawsuit, IPI terminated the Turkish workers\u2019 positions in December 2020. The court had previously <strong>granted the plaintiffs&#8217; motion for default <\/strong>after IPI failed to respond or defend itself within the time permitted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">IPI could resume gaming operations in first quarter of 2023<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>As previously reported by Focus Gaming News,&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/topics\/imperial-pacific-international\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Imperial Pacific International<\/a>&nbsp;could&nbsp;<strong>resume operations&nbsp;<\/strong>at its casino on Saipan in the&nbsp;<strong>first quarter of 2023<\/strong>. That\u2019s if it can reach an agreement with the Commonwealth Casino Commission (CCC).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to Asian Gaming Brief, IPI has proposed changes to the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) regulatory framework. It wants to replace its annual licence fee with a gaming licence fee based on a percentage of its net profit (with preset minimum and maximum amounts). It also seeks to separate the operation and regulation of IPI\u2019s hotels from its casino operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The company also hopes to negotiate a waiver of license fees from 2020 and 2021 and a reduction in the amount paid at the end of the term of its casino licence agreement. IPI has also asked for the dismissal of the ongoing CNMI Supreme Court case and the CCC order that resulted in&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/imperial-pacific-faces-saipan-casino-licence-suspension\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the suspension of its casino operations<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chief Justice Ramona Manglona has approved a Fair Labour Standards Act settlement between the casino operator and Turkish construction workers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":9179,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Imperial Pacific International (IPI) has finalized a Fair Labour Standards Act settlement concerning wage discrimination claims, incurring $480,000 in attorney's fees. Concurrently, IPI is engaged in critical negotiations with the Commonwealth Casino Commission (CCC) to reactivate its Saipan gaming operations in Q1 2023, proposing substantial amendments to its regulatory and licensing framework, including a shift to a net profit-based fee structure and a waiver of historical license obligations.","focusai_entities":"Imperial Pacific International (IPI), Ramona Manglona, Commonwealth Casino Commission (CCC), Focus Gaming News, Asian Gaming Brief","focusai_location":"Northern Mariana Islands, Saipan, Garapan","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.8), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"IPI's Capital Adequacy?","query":"Given the $480,000 settlement and ongoing operational suspension, what is Imperial Pacific International's current capital adequacy and projected cash flow to ensure sustainable gaming operations and meet future regulatory obligations?"},{"label":"Regulatory Framework Impact?","query":"What are the broader implications for the Commonwealth Casino Commission's regulatory integrity and future licensing agreements if IPI's proposals for a net profit-based fee structure and fee waivers are approved?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,439],"tags":[24134],"class_list":["post-35430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-legal-news","tag-imperial-pacific-international"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35430"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35430\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35456,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35430\/revisions\/35456"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}