Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs.
PHILIPSBURG--Prime Minister (PM) Silveria Jacobs on Wednesday tabled the Draft National Ordinance amending the Temporary National Ordinance on the COVID-19 cuts in employment conditions for civil servants, in connection with the phased reduction of the cuts to government workers.
The draft was presented in a public meeting of Parliament. One of Jacobs’ goals is to ensure that civil servants are not required to repay what they had already received. “I am here today to ensure that the hard-earned monies that these persons [civil servants – Ed.] have received will not be in jeopardy. They will not be asked to give it back, nor will they be asked to give in those days that are being held until this legislation is passed,” Jacobs told Members of Parliament (MPs) in referring to the vacation allowance that civil servants had received in the absence of the amendment being in place.
She explained that the spiralling cost of living, amongst other factors, prompted government and the unions representing government workers to come up with a solution to pay workers, to help ease the burden on these hard-working individuals. She made clear that government did not break any laws when civil servants were paid their vacation allowance, as provisions are in place for circumstances like this, although some MPs disagreed.
The Dutch government had initially proposed eight more conditions for the removal of the 12.5% solidarity cuts in employment benefits of civil servants and (semi-) public sector entities. Jacobs said although the Netherlands had reformulated four of the eight conditions by not having them “as hard conditions,” but rather “things to focus on,” four remain that are obligatory.
“These four remaining conditions were considered to be additional for us as government and also unnecessary, because the initial conditions for instituting the 12.5% cut were no longer valid or applicable,” she said. “The solidarity principle was no longer needed. We were implementing and are still implementing the ‘Country Packages’. We have passed the laws on the increase of pension. Those were conditions back then. And we have passed the law that we are currently trying to amend, as well as the LNT [law to regulate top incomes] for political persons. We have done all that we have promised to do to be able to get to this point. And so, with the changing circumstances, we felt it imperative to also give necessary relief to civil servants and others affected,” Jacobs explained.
The prime minister maintained that St. Maarten could not wait for the fulfilment of these additional conditions in order to provide relief to civil servants.
“It became increasingly obvious that many, many persons were requesting advances – advances to be able to pay, whether it was for material related to opening of the school year or whether it was insurances that they would usually have due around the time when they would collect these funds, or whether it was to prepare for the coming hurricane season,” she added.
“It became blatantly clear that with all those requests that, as matter of fact, are still coming in based on cost of living as well, that we could not continue to subject the civil servants to this any longer and lobbied to have this 12.5% cut removed.
She said while government did get an agreement with the Netherlands, several conditions were placed. “I have sent you, the MPs, a letter on the result of those discussions and I even came to Parliament in June on this point. Thus, in keeping with what I have continued to promote, we are striving to build a country that we love, St. Maarten, which affords opportunities and maximum growth, where family is at the core of our society; and that we are strengthening each other to teach the high morals and cultural values, to teach character and integrity and promote this and based on our love for ourselves, wishes for the best for ourselves, but also for our fellow man and this country, thereby motivating every person to contribute to the development of St. Maarten.”
She said together with the Council of Ministers, it was decided to seek a solution. “The solution is here before you. We sat with the unions, we came to an agreement on a temporary measure until we can actually get the law passed, and therefore we are here now. We are still living up to the 12.5% conditions and we will continue to do so until this law is passed, so this law will actually make it possible.”
She stressed that no laws were broken in the process of paying civil servants. “I did not, nor did this government act illegally as the National Ordinance on Accountability provides the necessary space for payment and the necessary amendment with retroactive implementation once adopted; this will smooth over any legal hurdles that are purely theoretical in nature, and does not negatively impact persons falling under the scope.”
She continued: “Together with the Council, we saw a workable solution to benefit the community in general and the civil servants in particular. This is at a time of great uncertainty in the world where economic challenges are facing everyone, including The Hague, and we need to and should ensure that we provide the necessary support to these people who are the pillars of our functioning – the civil servants, as when they suffer, we all suffer. It is time that when the cost of goods continues to shift from minute to minute, especially upwards, it is imperative that we take into consideration and apply policies that would benefit the people, amend and make changes, so that we can actually impact the lives of the individuals.”
She called on Parliament to support the initiative. “I ask for Parliament’s support in this and remind that this will not hamper the execution of the 12.5% reductions on the benefits. This is being maintained in another form, and the Minister of Finance [Ardwell Irion] for sure, when he can return for the answering of questions … will be able to further expound on this in fact. We recently sent a letter of explanation to the CFT [Committee for Financial Supervision] pertaining to how the adjustments were made.”
She said, “What is important is that we allow this relief for civil servants as a starting point … MPs have all championed this and, of course, we are happy to be able to bring this amendment forward. Of course, the next step would be to deal with the ones that fall under the LNT and to actually work towards the complete reduction.”
