THE HAGUE—Friday’s Kingdom Council of Ministers RMR meeting on ending the COVID-19 crisis-related benefits reduction of 12.5% for employees in the (semi)public sector of Curaçao, Aruba (12.6%) and St. Maarten was called off at the last minute "because the negotiations have not yet been completed," according to the official statement by the Dutch Ministry of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations BZK.
Apparently Curaçao’s Pisas II Cabinet does also wants the reductions for political authorities and parliamentarians off the table. One of the conditions listed by the Netherlands is precisely to maintain the wage intervention for high earners in government and its companies or subsidised entities for the time being.
The Hague also does not want revoking austerity measures to be paid for with Dutch liquidity support. Despite pressure from the public sector unions to go along, Curaçao says giving back what was taken from civil servants is impossible no money from the Netherlands can be used for this.
