Curaçao’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry recently made a rather bold and no doubt controversial suggestion. The idea is to put an income limit on the need to ask permission for individual layoffs and simultaneously introduce a Labour Desk at the Court of Justice where such matters are dealt with via fast-track legal procedure.
Mind you, the chamber represents not only businesses but also foundations and associations. Considering the island’s current economic downturn, it nevertheless does not want to spare “sacred cows”, including the Dismissal Law.
As correctly pointed out, many experts have recommended making labour legislation in the Dutch Caribbean more flexible over the years, but very little came of it so far. The current proposal entails that a dismissal request would no longer be in play for persons making at least 150 per cent of the minimum wage.
The argument is that the latter professionals don’t really require this intervention. Knowing they won’t easily be “stuck” with a worker who underperforms or otherwise fails to meet expectations also after the two-month trial period might stimulate entrepreneurs to take personnel into regular service more often.
There is a growing sense that short-term contracts and employment agencies are sometimes misused precisely for this reason. Proponents go as far as claiming there will be a tendency to raise salaries to the envisioned level.
On the other side of the coin, such a measure could leave the lower to middle class without adequate protection. That might in turn force them to accept things from their employer they normally wouldn’t and/or shouldn’t.
The question is whether this matter can even be discussed with the local trade unions, which are always keen to bring up increasing the minimum wage and old age pension AOV, hiking or indexing salaries, providing affordable housing and tackling poverty, but rarely how to stimulate the economy that pays for it all. The thing about social dialogue is that – to truly work – it must be a two-way street.
