GREAT BAY – Around 150 candidates have applied for the position of director at Princess Juliana International Airport, Prime Minister William Marlin said at yesterday’s Council of Ministers press briefing. While the PM did not go into the details of these candidates, he noted that two applicants had approached him with a complaint. “They have the proper work experience and academic education yet the answer to their application was that they did not meet the criteria. They thought it strange that they did not even get an interview.”
Author: The Publisher
Every now and then the discussion pops up: who has to pay for work permits? In a related article, attorney Cor Merx notes that, as employers want to hire someone, said employers will have to pay. It makes sense, and the law says as much. The employer pays for the work permits. But. But. Nowhere in the law does it say that employers are not free to recoup these expenses from their employees. That is how things work in practice: the employer indeed pays for the work permits, but in the end the employees are charged for it. One may…
Dear editor, On this day I salute teachers everywhere and in a very special way, all teachers on St. Maarten in all levels of education. October 5 is celebrated as World Teachers Day, a day commemorating the signing of the recommendations on the status of teachers in 1966 in Paris. Over the past 50 years, several reports have been made, reviewing the execution and implementation of these recommendations. They address matters affecting our teachers, such as their further education, careers, rights and responsibilities, salaries and social security, amongst others. The 2016 World Teachers Day theme “Valuing teachers, improving their status” suggests there is…
Just when you think that you have seen every possible way to fool the system something new comes up. This time it is a restaurateur – one with a name and reputation to hold up as well – who finds himself on the wrong side of the law with a simple scheme that seemed to work flawlessly for years. By setting up a company in another jurisdiction and subsequently signing a franchise contract with this entity, the restaurateur ducked hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes. The franchise fees he either paid or just booked in his administration, disappeared into…
When Vincent Boetius ends his term as chairman(*) of the supervisory board of the Cadastre this month, his place will most likely be taken by Vromi-Minister Angel Meyers for a job that pays 2,500 guilders per month. At least, that is what we hear. Not all is well at the Cadastre, where interim-director Marcia Peterson is still in charge. Interestingly, so we learned from sources that know these things, Peterson seems to be close with Minister Meyers. Telecom records this newspaper obtained show how Peterson one day kept a phone conversation (on July 27, 2015) going for 5 hours, 11…
One may well wonder why St. Maarten’s Pointe Blanche prison has become the home of a convict who shot somebody in Aruba last year. With a sentence of 18 years to his name, the inmate will spend at least the next twelve years here. It seems rather odd that Pointe Blanche would accommodate Aruba, while it has been fighting a shortage of cells for years, if not decades. There are other options within the Kingdom and the first country that comes to mind is the Netherlands, were prison facilities are so under-occupied that several of them have been or will…
GREAT BAY – A conflict between the Westin Hotel and one of its employees took an unexpected turn when the hotel management approached a managing partner of TCP with the request to investigate whether his father (attorney Cor Merx) was busy with a lawsuit against the hotel. The managing partner in question, Ing. Henk Merx, went ballistic when the hotel management informed him that his contract would be terminated if he did not cooperate. TCP maintains swimming pools for the Westin on a contract worth $50,000. Merx Jr. let the Westin know that there was no need to terminate his…
GREAT BAY (soualigapost.com) – According to the Airinfo website, XL Airways is positioning itself on Saint-Martin. The low-cost company will operate the connection once a week between Paris Charles de Gaulle and Princess Juliana International airport from December 18, 2016, to May 1, 2017. “An Airbus A330-200 which can accommodate 359 passengers will be used. Travellers will be able to transport a 23 kg cabin bag free of charge and enjoy a hot meal and a snack served by the crew members,” reported Airinfo. Departures are scheduled every Sunday from December 18, 2016, to January 8, 2017, and then every Monday from…
Trouw journalist Hans Marijnissen analyzed the phenomenon Gerrit Schotte and Curacao-based journalist Dick Drayer added a brief introduction to the story. Why Schotte is going to win the elections tomorrow. Gerrit Schotte split with Helmin Wiels on October 29, 2012, after Wiels had called him a sociopath. Wiels had won the elections, beating Schotte by a margin of 1,265 votes that took away the initiative from Schotte for the formation of the next government. Research by journalist Yves Cooper made clear that Wiels took away 19 percent of Schotte’s MFK-electorate. In 2013 Wiels was assassinated and his 19,715 votes were…
GREAT BAY – Watching grass grow is probably more exciting than sitting through a session of the Central Voting Bureau during a recount of all votes cast in the September 26 elections, but there was still some excitement in the air for at least two candidates yesterday. Photo caption: All hands go up in favor of the recount of all ballots. Photo Today / Hilbert Haar Central Voting Bureau finds discrepancies When the Central Voting Bureau announced the results last week, UP-candidate Jules James was just one vote ahead of Tamara Leonard for the fifth seat in parliament. But already…
