Minister of Public Health, Social Development and Labour Emil Lee said fiscal and labour laws must be respected (see related story), as exempting foreign parties promotes unfair competition with local business and workers. That he felt the need to do so alone confirms this is an issue in the current reconstruction process.
Continued inspections, while perhaps not always convenient, are perhaps more important than ever under the present circumstances with a Post-Hurricane Irma shortage of especially skilled builders and other craftsmen. Experience shows that rules not or hardly enforced will more easily and often be broken.
The minister also recognised that there are too many persons on the island lacking proper documentation, and called for multi-disciplinary controls particularly with Immigration authorities. A shortened and simplified procedure to temporarily import workers for specific projects was even offered, but not made use of very much.
What seems to be happening more frequently is the hiring of cheap labour from poor countries through mostly unscrupulous recruiters, people-smugglers, contractors and dubious employment brokers. Although legal residency is in principle no requirement to pay taxes and social premiums, this is usually not done, leaving these people without health and accident insurance.
What’s more, the money is often still deducted from their pay but simply not transferred to the proper entities. This is nothing less than stealing.
The story in Monday’s paper about a group of Central Americans being exploited, although it reportedly happened on the French side, appears to indicative of the island-wide situation. Whoever is in charge and guilty of such unsavoury practices must keep in mind that there exists chain responsibility in St. Maarten which makes them ultimately accountable, no matter how many intermediaries they hide behind.
