There was no effective letter for a foreign nurse who’s been working for the Department of Health for over four months without pay, and this was confirmed by Human Resources Director Sonny L Thompson prior to his departure for meetings off island. This was also confirmed by Acting Director Eseneiaso Liu who said DHR has no file on the Filipino nurse hired by the DOH.

Last week the Personnel Manager for DOH, Loretta Lees, said in a meeting with DOH Officials that there was an effective letter issued by the HR, which allowed the nurse to work without an Immigration identification.

Samoa News notes that the nurse had been working without an ID until last week. According to Rees, the said employee came to DOH when she was working somewhere else to seek a better paying job — and due to the need for nurses, DOH hired her with the “assumption” that her immigration papers would be ready within two weeks.

This was back in February, this year.

Four months later — last Tuesday — the nurse, who has been working on the weekends, received her immigration ID. As reported earlier, HR Director Thompson said in this administration, under no circumstances is anyone allowed to work without a government ID and a signed contract.

Samoa News emailed both Acting Director Fara Utu and Lees, who declined to comment as to what happened to the nurse’s effective letter allowing her to work at DOH.

Last month, Lt. Governor Lemanu Peleti Muaga issued a letter reiterating what Thompson stated on numerous occasions over “unauthorized” hires without approval by the HR Department. Lemanu in his letter to the Department Heads and Directors, said “you have been advised and have been put on notice, I am requesting all Directors and Agency heads, to refrain from this practice without due process by the DHR.”

Lemanu said that “continuing with a blatant disregard of these procedures is in violation of the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act and further exposes the American Samoa Government to employment liability.” Lemanu continued, “effective immediately, all Department and Agencies with unauthorized employees who have yet to be cleared by Human Resources are advised to return home with compensation for the time worked at the expense of the agency.

“Any future retention is predicated on the recruitment protocol by Human Resources and validation by the Director or his designee.”

Lemanu further pointed out that after this memorandum “all actions related to recruitment, retention, contracts, including change orders, short term contract extension, all alike will originate from the HR with the exception granted to contract or appointees declared by the Governor.”