PHILIPSBURG – TelEm-director Kendall Dupersoy hit back at union leader Ludson Evers in an interview broadcast on the Lady Grace breakfast show. “If we discuss issues concerning TelEm then let’s be honest about it,” he said. Dupersoy pointed out that while Evers, leader of the St. Maarten communication Union (SMCU) had never said this personally to him, many people have told him that he (Evers) is “going all over the place saying that he is going to get me fired. But when I asked him about it he said, I never said that.” Dupersoy took issue with the union’s demand…
Author: The Publisher
~ Residents and students can return and go into quarantine ~ SIMPSON BAY — The Princess Juliana International Airport (SXM) is expected to resume total operations around July 1st, but to a specified number of islands that are considered as COVID-19 free, the Minister of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport and Telecommunications (Ministry TEATT) announced on Wednesday during the press briefing, according to a report published on Soualiganewsday.com. This is contingent on the COVID-19 situation within the country. The islands being considered that the international airport would re-open to are Anguilla, St. Barths, Saba, St. Eustatius, Bonaire, Curacao, and Aruba. The…
POND ISLAND — After what can be described as a short but intense back and forth of letter correspondences, TelEm Group and the St. Maarten Communication Union (SMCU) has reached an agreement regarding cost-cutting measures in fulfillment of the request of the government of St. Maarten for the government-owned company to do its share of cost-cutting to satisfy the conditions for liquidity support from the Dutch Kingdom government. The agreement, which was signed at 5:05 pm on Thursday, June 4, regards the “12,5% Cost Cutting Negotiations between Management and Union” and reads as follows: As a result of the negotiations…
AIRPORT — As international aviation publications publish ICAO’s projected opening dates of major airports around the world, the question remains whether this is a wise and justified decision. According to a report in the Antilliaans Dagblad on Thursday, June 3, 2020, the new corona positive case in Curacao proves that there are still hot spots around the world, and especially close at home in our region. Such as the Dominican Republic, Colombia, and the United States. In an article published in The Wall Street Journal, it is reported that scientists and researchers are finding evidence in their analyses of this…
By Hilbert Haar It cannot surprise anyone that the government’s cost-cutting measures in exchange for receiving liquidity support from the Netherlands have become the center of an epic controversy, especially at the government-owned companies. TelEm comes to mind in this respect with its proposal to cut salaries across the board by 12.5 percent in combination with some other measures. The message from the top: do or die. The telecom union (SMCU) objects and points to the way utilities company GEBE has dealt with the government’s cost-cutting directive. I cannot help but thinking that GEBE is exercising some creative bookkeeping with…
PHILIPSBURG – In a letter to the Second Chamber dated May 19 State Secretary Raymond Knops wrote that one of the conditions for providing liquidity support to St. Maarten is a “decrease of 12,5 percent of the complete package of labor conditions.” In other words, it is not necessarily a cut into gross salaries. In a letter dated June 2 to the supervisory boards of five government-owned companies, Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs wrote that cuts in personnel costs are “not limited to the salaries of employees and can include reductions in vacation pay, bonuses, overtime and working hours.” In other…
PHILIPSBURG – The Economic Bureau Amsterdam produced at the request of the Dutch parliament a report about performance, opportunities and solutions for the Caribbean part of the Kingdom, entitled Small Islands, Large Challenges. It does not contain any new information but it is rather a compilation of platitudes and known facts. Examples? “The economy of St. Maarten remains vulnerable to natural disasters,” “The International Monetary Fund advises a debt quote of 40 percent” and “It is necessary that St. Maarten takes the necessary measures to keep healthcare and social security affordable.” The report speaks of a “silent crisis” in the…
PHILIPSBURG — Member of Parliament and Faction Leader for the United People’s Party the honorable Grisha Heyliger-Marten is calling on the Dutch Government to finalize the decolonization process that it started almost seventy years ago. Her position is consistent with the proclamation of the period 2010-2020 as the “Third International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism” by the United Nations General Assembly on December 10th, 2010 via resolution 65/119. In a press release issued on Wednesday, June 2, 2020, MP Heyliger-Marten said the “Round Table Conference” between the Government of the Netherlands and the six Dutch Caribbean islands should be…
PHILIPSBURG – TelEm’s top managers paid themselves hefty bonuses in December of last year, union-leader Ludson Evers confirmed to StMaartenNews.com. While there was an agreement about a bonus of 50 percent of their salaries, the managers took 100 percent. The supervisory board forced them to pay back the difference. Evers said he believes that director Dupersoy earns more or less the amount of 27,000 guilders ($15,084) per month, financial director Helma Etnel 25,000 ($13,966) and technical director Eldert Luisa between 22 and 23,000 (around $12,570). “Etnel and Louisa paid back the difference immediately but Dupersoy claimed he had financial problems,”…
PHILIPSBURG – The St. Maarten Communication Union (SMCU) has labeled the proposal of salary cuts by the management of telecom provider TelEm an “indecent proposal.” Chairman Ludson Evers and Secretary Sherman Serastis wrote in a letter to TelEm-director Kendal Dupersoy that the union “does not agree with any cost cutting measure that would have a direct negative financial impact on the employees.” The union still wants to have a discussion with TelEm-management about cost-cutting measures but not before the company provides a truckload of information about the costs of, among others, consultants and legal advisers. The union wants detailed information…
