The hosting of a recruitment drive for Sonesta Beach Resort and Casino by St. Maarten Training Foundation (SMTF) reported on in Saturday’s paper is a welcome development. The foundation runs the Emergency Income Support and Training Programme (EISTP) established after the devastating passage of Hurricane Irma that has provided close to 1,800 un- or underemployed persons with hospitality, culinary and construction courses while receiving a monthly stipend, small transport allowance and health insurance.
The whole idea was that these people would again find full-time work once the island and particularly damaged visitor accommodations bounced back. Assisting them in doing so like in this case may be considered an extension of SMTF’s goal, as director Sergio Wolff confirmed.
It’s not clear how many housekeepers, kitchen staff, bartenders, carpenters, masons, waiters, hostesses and food & beverage supervisors will ultimately be hired from the group that registered, but at least there was an opportunity to apply. With all the recent talk about further restricting the issuing of employment permits for foreigners, it’s good to note that many businesses also go out of their way to find suitable local candidates.
EISTP, paid for from the Dutch-sponsored Trust Fund administered by the World Bank, was criticised by the Consumers Coalition, which said only about 442 graduates had thus far returned to their previous workplace. Perhaps others found different jobs, but it does indicate difficulties connecting to the labour market.
People should keep in mind that the country continues to be in recovery mode and various major resorts, including two currently being rebuilt, are still sorely missing. That’s why it was good for Minister of Public Health, Social Development and Labour Pamela Gordon-Carty to visit Royal Palm and Flamingo, so she could see and hear for herself how the process there is going.
The contested new policy on work permits nevertheless went into effect days later, but the properties’ owner Diamond Resorts and its contractor Bouygues had a bit of a heads-up. Hopefully, that can help ensure these projects won’t suffer any significant delay as a result, because their reopening shortly is of the utmost importance to the tourism economy and should create a lot of hospitality jobs of a more permanent nature than the current construction work.
