Abellanosa

MEMORANDUM *

Joanna Abellanosa and other former contract employees of L & T International Corp. (collectively, “Abellanosa”) appeal the district court’s dismissal of their claims against L & T. We affirm in part, reverse and vacate in part, and remand.

I

Abellanosa argues that the district court mistakenly characterized her illegal deduction claims as non-cognizable under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), 29 U.S.C. § 201 et seq., when the FLSA provides an independent claim based on illegal deductions. However, the minimum wage provisions of the FLSA are not applicable in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) by virtue of Section 503 of the Covenant to Establish a Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in Political Union with the United States of America, reprinted at 48 U.S.C. § 1801 ; and Abellanosa points to no other provision of the FLSA upon which any claim whose gravamen is a deduction from minimum wage could be based. While the overtime provisions of the FLSA are applicable in the CNMI, there is no mathematical possibility that the payments about which Abellanosa complains affected overtime wages. Accordingly, her FLSA claims lack merit, and…