Huge bill for SAR firm over bad treatment of workers

A judge on the Pacific island of Saipan has ordered a Hong Kong firm to pay seven Chinese workers US$5.4 million (HK$42.1 million) for forcing them to work long hours in dangerous conditions to build a casino even while they were denied medical care for injuries.

Chief Judge Ramona Manglona of the US District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands issued her ruling after Hong Kong's Imperial Pacific International repeatedly failed to comply with court orders to exchange information with the workers.

The award covers lost income, payments for emotional distress, pain and suffering and punitive damages.

The workers sued Imperial Pacific together with Gold Mantis Construction Decoration and MCC International Saipan. The other two firms settled with the workers earlier.

Separately, US officials in 2018 announced settlements requiring Gold Mantis, MCC and two other Chinese firms to pay 2,400 workers on the casino project US$14 million in back wages and damages.

Officials said the companies, contracted by Imperial Pacific, took workers to Saipan on tourist visas, paid them less than was lawful and failed to secure work authorizations by exploiting a visa waiver program.

Manglona noted that worker Wang Tianming suffered burns to his left leg when a spark ignited as he was cutting a metal barrel. A supervisor told Wang he would be arrested if he went to hospital and instead gave him two rolls of gauze.

A doctor who checked Wang later said he suffered chronic pain and muscles had atrophied. He struggles to walk and has been unable to work since returning to China.