Payday for jeweler’s former employee

PHILIPSBURG – KRK Corporation, the entity that operates Milano Diamond Gallery and Diamonds Are Forever in Philipsburg is on the ropes for a hefty payment to a former employee after the Common Court of Justice threw out its appeal against an earlier court decision.

KRK has to pay the former employee $34,970 for arrears in black payments and for cessantia and $2,608 per month in net salary up to July 1, 2020 – the date the court set for the dissolution of the labor contract. If KRK has to pay this salary from the month it was first established by the court (September 2018) until the end of the contract, this would add up to $57,376 – setting the total damages for the company slightly above $92,000.

The former employee entered employment with KRK company Genoa Jewelers on April 10, 2006, for a gross monthly salary of 9,500 guilders ($5,307). On September 28, 2018, when things between employee and employee had already gone sour, the court ordered KRK and Genoa to continue paying the employee’s salary of $2,245.31 and his average monthly commission of $125.50.

Part of the employee’s remuneration was a black payment. Parties attempted settling this matter in an amicable way but the negotiations failed. Hence the request to the court to rule on it; on March 31, 2020, the court ordered to pay the employee $16,599 net.

The employee also claimed cessantia – the one-time payment employers owe to workers who lose their jobs due to no fault of their own. In this case, the court acknowledged the employee’s entitlement to cessantia and established that the amount has to be calculated over 14 years of service. Cessantia does not take black payments into account. The court set the cessantia-grant at 32,884.50 guilders gross, payable per July 1, 2020.