POND ISLAND — The Unified Unions of Sint Maarten submitted today Thursday, May 28, 2020, a counter-proposal to the Council of Minister regarding the 12.5% cuts on personnel salaries, vacation allowance, etc.. In its counterproposal the unions are requesting the following: 1. 100% vacation allowance pay for 2020 (unions are willing to negotiate a 50% of the Cost of Living Adjustment from 2012-2019 pending the outcome of St. Maarten’s economic performance and Government’s financial position during said period 2021-2022); 2. A poverty line study to be initiated in collaboration with USM and the Consumer’s Coalition by July 1st, 2020, to…
Author: The Publisher
Dear Honorable Minister Ardwell Irion, We are a group of concerned teachers who have taken note of the proposed cuts by the government. While everyone would love for our finances to be stable, we acknowledge the limitations of our coffers. Therefore, it is reasonable to accept our current salaries as we move forward and half of our vacation pay for 2020 and 2021. Additionally, we would like to propose that the vacation pay be reimbursed in the year 2022 by 200%. Of course, we are hoping that these cuts will be in collaboration with the other operational and material cuts…
By Hilbert Haar Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs has appealed to labor unions to be more reasonable in their approach to the government since it has become clear that said unions are squarely opposed to the looming 12.5 percent salary cut for civil servants. It is, to phrase this carefully, at best a rather volatile situation. The government has made a commitment to the kingdom by accepting conditions for liquidity support that even the editorial staff of the authoritative Dutch newspaper Trouw considers as being too harsh. In that sense, the unions do not stand alone. The term unfair (used on…
PHILIPSBURG – The government’s decision to accept the kingdom’s conditions for liquidity support is not going down well with civil servant and their unions. That much is clear from the meeting the unions organized at the Little League Ball Park on Monday. Illegal workers and the lack of cost of living adjustments in the face of rising prices were among the arguments against “hitting on civil servants.” Because the government has accepted the Dutch conditions, the room for negotiating alternatives to the looming 12.5 percent salary cut seems to be slim to nonexistent. This also appears from a letter Prime…
PHILIPSBURG — A few hundred meters away from the Government Building on Pond Island, on government land next to the dump, a human drama unfolds. Residents are starving, and some had no running water or electricity for more than a week. Illegal construction work resumed last week in St. Maarten, but by no means, can all undocumented immigrants get back to work and make a living. Pond Island is home to hundreds of people, many of whom reside illegally on the island. The shantytowns between the government building and the dump are ruled by Dominicans, and they form the majority.…
door John Leerdam Er zijn orkanen en er zijn orkanen. Er zijn orkanen zoals Irma, en er is een orkaan zoals Covid-19 die wereldwijd economieën heeft verwoest. Kwetsbare economieën zoals die op Curaçao worden extra zwaar getroffen. In de Volkskrant (16 april 2020, O&D, pag. 27) sloegen vier prominente professionals met Caribische wortels (Maria Cuartas, Jurenne Hooi, Arthur Kibbelaar en Walter Palm), alarm over de huidige schrijnende armoede op onder meer Curaçao. Les misérables (1862) van Victor Hugo herleeft bij de beelden die op 16 april 2020 te zien waren in het NOS-journaal. Toelatingsregeling Economische malaise op Curaçao leidt vaak…
door John Leerdam Staatssecretaris Raymond Knops heeft de buit binnen. Hij kan tevreden zijn. Alle drie de regeringen van de overzeese Koninkrijksdelen Aruba, Sint Maarten en Curaçao dus, zijn akkoord gegaan met zijn voorstellen. Maar het ging er ruw aan toe. Beschaafde bestuurlijke omgangsvormen waren door de staatssecretaris bij het grofvuil gezet. Aruba was eerder akkoord gegaan, maar de regeringen van Sint Maarten en Curaçao hadden ‘tot woensdag 20 mei om 17.00 uur (Nederlandse tijd) de tijd (..) om het voorstel dat op tafel lag schriftelijk alsnog te aanvaarden. Voor ieder land dat het voorstel niet tijdig heeft aanvaard, zal…
door John Leerdam Het hing in de lucht. Op donderdag 14 mei jongstleden haalde aan de vooravond van de Rijksministerraad de Curaçaose minister-president uit naar Nederland. Hij vond dat hij werd behandeld als loopjongen met de door Nederland gedicteerde gedetailleerde kortingen op ministers- en ambtenarensalarissen als voorwaarden voor liquiditeitssteun. De Rijksministerraad van de volgende dag klapte. Er kon geen overeenstemming met Curaçao bereikt worden over de condities voor liquiditeitssteun. Financiële beademing voor het Curaçaose bedrijfsleven dat in de intensive care ligt als gevolg van de total lockdown om de Covid-19-pandemie te stutten is nu onmiddellijk in gevaar door gebrek aan…
PHILIPSBURG — It is interesting to see how the Government is managing its negotiations with the unions representing government workers. While on May 19th, the Government presented to Parliament a so-called take it or leave it deal from the Kingdom Government and an attached deadline, from media reports it appears as if Government has some maneuvering space or at least, the Government seems to think it has maneuvering space to decide “don’t cut here, cut there.” It is either that Government is not telling the whole truth regarding the conditions imposed by the Kingdom Government or the Government is taking…
WILLEMSTAD – KPMG Meijburg & Co Caribbean has accepted a settlement of 140,000 guilders ($78,212) from the Public Prosecutor’s Office to prevent criminal prosecution. A manager of the company pays 65,000 guilders ($36,313). The settlements follow on the heels of the Troja and Cymbal investigations into dollar-tourism in Curacao. Tourists, mostly Venezuelans – picked up more than $320 million with around one million credit card transactions between 2004 and 2014. The company that facilitated the practice – the Monterrey Trading Company (MTC) of the Grynsztein family – masked the transactions as purchases for clothing or medication. After the Troja and…
