PHILIPSBURG--Diamonds International (DI) has severed ties with fifteen of its 150 workers due to a “serious decline” in sales this year.
DI official Moshe Hakimi told The Daily Herald on Tuesday evening that the “negative changes of cruise ship visits” to St. Maarten had resulted in the company experiencing “a serious decline in sales this year.”
“Unfortunately our sales prediction shows that this trend will continue through the season of 2015-2016,” Hakimi said. “Due to that we had to reduce our workforce from 150 to 135, which is about 10 per cent of our workforce.”
He said all the terminations were according to the country’s labour laws and each employee had been offered severance pay that in most cases was more than the law required and it was a mutual agreement. “Each employee was advised before agreeing and signing to check with the Labour Department on the accuracy of the severance pay and most of them have done so,” he said.
DI has been operating in St. Maarten since 1993 and Hakimi said it had been and still was the largest employer on Front Street in its market segment.
“We have been through hard times in the past and always believed in St. Maarten, the people of St. Maarten and stayed committed to St. Maarten,” Hakimi said. “I’m confident that this period of business decline is temporary and that St. Maarten will recoup in the next couple of years.”
DI has six stores in the country: four in Philipsburg and two at Dr. A.C. Wathey Cruise and Cargo Facilities. It could not be ascertained from which of the DI locations the 15 employees came.
