Discriminating evidence

By David North

FOR years Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands has not been able to organise its higher education system (which produces some teachers) and its wage scales to get enough local residents to teach school. So it had to look elsewhere to hire teachers, and it turned to two quite different labour markets the mainland and the

Philippines. The attraction of the main land teachers was that they were avail able, spoke good English, and could help CNMI kids qualify for mainland col leges. The attraction of the Filipino teachers was that they were inexpensive, and they were particularly adept with Filipino students (though CNMTs immi gration policies are such that most of the temporary alien workers from the Philip pines are not allowed to bring along their children).

In this meeting CNMI, according to the US Justice Department, erected aj three-tier system for the teachers. In the top layer were the mainland teachersj whose transportation to the islands is paid by CNMI, and who are paid better and get better housing than the other teachers.

In the middle level are the indigenous Chamorro and Carolinian teachers. At] the bottom are the Filipinos, who are paid less than the Americans, who are housed less well than the mainlandersj and whose hours are longer and working: conditions are less favorable than either] the Americans or the indigenous teach-j ers. Filipinos, who also must fly to their! jobs, secured none of the transportation assistance offered to the mainlanders.

Further the Justice Department charged the Filipinos were not given the same promotional opportunities granted other teachers, and the educational system made no effort to punish students; who harassed their Filipino teachers on racial grounds.

Federal law, for many years, has prohibited mainland employers from asking potential employees anything about their family situation a boss cannot ask a job candidate if he or she l is married, much less if she is pregnant.

To do so is to suggest gender discrimi nation.

Juan L. Babauta, CNMI Board of Education Chairman, denied the charges generally, but offered no specifics in! rebuttal.

Although he did not say so, a close] reading of the Justice Department com plaint suggests that the Washington lawyers tossed every conceivable charge into the complaint. For example, the; Board of Education was accused of causing the Filipino teachers to leave the islands if they wanted to change em ployers. This is not a Board of Education decision, it relates to the way CNMI treats all alien workers. CNMI was also accused of insisting that Filipino teachers take an English language test, but it does not make similar requirements of indi genous and mainland teachers. The

CNMI requirement is comparable to i

that made by every American university contemplating an application filed by a ] student from a nation other than an ] English-speaking one; those from English-speaking countries do not take a ! language test. Since English is the 1 language of instruction in CNMI, know- 1 ing English would seem to be a plausible condition for employment, as would j testing for it among job candidates from a non-English-speaking country.