The Department of Labor, who has been tasked with helping soon-to-be displaced Hyatt Regency Saipan employees, says they are confident that they will be able to find jobs for these employees come June 30.
Last Tuesday, Hyatt Regency Saipan officially announced that they will be permanently closing come June 30. This would leave 146 employees without jobs.
However, in an interview with Labor Secretary Leila Staffler, she said she is confident that they will be able to absorb these employees and help place them in new jobs.
“As soon as we heard about the closure of the Hyatt, we reached out to Gov. Arnold I. Palacios and he tasked the Department of Labor with becoming available to provide any resources—through all of the programs we have. We’re ready to stand and serve our community and see what we can do to help people transition through this tough change. We do have awareness of different properties that are seeking employees. So being able to line them up and collaborate with them, essentially being that middleman, is what we are here for,” she said.
“I won’t speak to specific businesses, but they have been working with our programs and it just so happens that it lined up perfectly with this event. So, we have high hopes that every person in Hyatt will be able to find new employment. We’ve also been told that there are other businesses that, as soon as they heard [about Hyatt’s closure], were reaching out to the Hyatt directly as well,” Staffler added.
The DOL secretary noted that Hyatt employees, with their vast experience in customer service, are valuable.
“Finding skilled employees is hard, and the people that have been working at Hyatt have had a lot of training and they are some of the best service partners in the CNMI. It’s sad to see Hyatt go, but we know that we will be able to absorb all the different employees they have,” she said.
Rapid response plan
Staffler stated that after hearing about Hyatt’s closure, DOL immediately worked on a rapid response plan in response to the impending displacement of over 140 US workers.
“We know there are 146 employees at the Hyatt and over 80% of them are U.S. workers, they will be let go after June 30. We officially heard about this on April 30 and then we did an outreach that same day. We have a plan in place already,” she said.
Joe Villacrusis, the head of the rapid response team specific to Hyatt’s impending closure, shared that the plan is to hold an information session as early as next week and to host a job fair (specifically for Hyatt employees) as soon as May 17.
“We have been able to meet with Hyatt personnel the day after the announcement and we were able to gather some information from them to determine how we can better assist them in this transition. We already have plans on creating an information session next week, as early as Monday or Tuesday, to provide the affected employees with the resources and information they would need to make informed decisions on what their next career path will be. Alongside that, we will be partnering with the Division of Employment Services during this initiative and we also have plans for a job fair (specifically for Hyatt employees) where we will be inviting members of the business community to participate so that there are options for these employees,” he said.
Meanwhile, Villacrusis said Hyatt affected employees can also visit or call the DOL main office on Capitol Hill for more information.
https://www.saipantribune.com/news/local/dol-jobs-available-for-over-100-hyatt-employees/article_55b938e8-0868-11ef-b38f-139ef5f5169e.html
