Hong Kong-listed Imperial Pacific International (IPI) has defended its decision to cut a large number of staff at its Saipan integrated resort last week, claiming the layoffs were necessary in order to ensure the company’s survival.
IPI issued a lengthy statement on Monday, three days after 60 of the affected workers gathered outside Imperial Pacific Resort demanding an explanation as to why they had lost their jobs.
That explanation cited a lack of inbound tourists due to island-wide damage caused by last month’s Super Typhoon Yutu.
“The entire community is suffering and has had to make difficult decisions because of Yutu’s natural disaster and its dire effects,” IPI’s statement read. “Businesses throughout the CNMI are operating on limited hours or have completely closed down. Some have closed due to the damage to their businesses and others closed because it is too costly to run generators to maintain normal business hours.
“One of the most devastating effects to businesses has been the impact to tourism – no customers.
“Given this current situation, many employees are faced with either reduced work hours or have been laid off. Imperial Pacific has not been spared from this. The company has determined that because of the lack of tourists on the island, it has no choice but to operate on limited hours with minimal staff.
“Because it is unclear when tourist arrivals will normalize and when the airport will be fully operational, Imperial Pacific made a difficult decision to reduce its manpower. This decision has not been easy because the company realizes that many lives will be impacted.
“Imperial Pacific regrets that layoffs must commence, but it is necessary in order to ensure the company’s survival until such time as our visitor population normalizes and we can sustain regular business operations.”
IPI also claimed it had already been restructuring operations prior to Typhoon Yutu with a view to determining workforce requirements and achieving better efficiency, but that the storm had effectively forced its hand.
Nevertheless, the company insisted it “remains firm in its commitment to fulfill its obligations to the Commonwealth” – namely completion of Imperial Pacific Resort by February 2021 after recently being granted a two-and-a-half year extension to the previous 31 August construction deadline.
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