CNMI Department of Labor urges restoration of Administrative Hearing Office staffing

Leila Stafler, secretary of labor for the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, told the Ways and Means Committee at a budget hearing that the Department of Labor’s Administrative Hearing Office is critically understaffed and asked committee members to preserve unfilled FTEs in the department’s fiscal 2026 request.

Stafler said the office had been reduced over the past decade to a single full‑time equivalent and that the department needs “at minimum” one Administrative Hearing Officer, one clerk and one administrative staff member to provide impartial adjudication, manage filings and coordinate hearings. She said the office has been unable to sustain those positions through hiring and that the department has used outside legal services to keep hearings moving.

The staffing gap, Stafler said, undermines “timely notice of hearings and evidence,” the ability of parties to prepare, and the issuance of reasoned, documented orders. She told the committee that the last hearing officer resigned in December and that the hearing‑clerk position has been vacant since a 2023 resignation; the department has posted vacancies multiple times and reported no applicants for some posts.

Stafler said the department recently contracted outside counsel to address an accumulation of appeals and labor complaints; she framed those expenditures as temporary and tied to federal program funding. She also asked for a modest salary increase for the hearing officer position — to $95,000 as proposed in the department’s budget narrative — and said the clerk position is included in the current budget request.

Representative Marissa Flores, the floor leader, pressed the department for case counts and outcomes; Stafler said 38 hearings were pending when the vacancy occurred and that outside counsel had been engaged to address 28 of those matters, with about 10 still awaiting assignment. Stafler emphasized that unresolved hearings have tangible consequences for workers and employers, including loss of wages and delayed resolution of claims.

The department repeated its request that the committee not delete unfilled FTEs in the adopted budget and argued that restoring and sustaining staffing is necessary for legally required due‑process protections and for the department’s capacity to enforce labor standards.

The committee did not take a vote on the request at the hearing; members signaled interest in preserving the posted positions while asking for additional clarifications during the budget process.