Claire Elshot
PHILIPSBURG--St. Maarten Anti-Poverty Platform (SMAPP) co-coordinator and Windward Islands Chamber of Labour Union (WICLU) President Claire Elshot said the unions will denounce with the Ombudsman the “unlawful proceedings” regarding the recent passing of the temporary National Ordinance for cuts in employment conditions for civil servants.
During SMAPP’s weekly press conference on Thursday, Elshot reiterated that the unions were never presented with the draft ordinances for any form of negotiations.
“No dialogue, no negotiation was concluded between the Council of Ministers and the Chamber of Labour Unions on the Dutch conditions imposed on the governments of Curaçao, Aruba and St. Maarten to get COVID-19 liquidity support,” said Elshot. “The three draft laws discussed in Parliament last week and this week were not presented to the unions of the Chamber of Labour Unions, neither to the Committee of Civil Servants Unions (CCSU).”
According to Elshot, separate meetings were held with the CCSU to start discussions with government on the proposals of implementing the 12.5 per cent cut in remunerations for civil servants.
However, she said that meetings between government and the CCSU should not be confused with dialogue and negotiations with WICLU.
She further explained that prior to September 2020 the CCSU had representatives of only two unions with members who are civil servants – Windward Island Civil Servants Union (WICSU) and Windward Islands Teachers Union (WITU).
Two other unions representing civil servants, ABVO St. Maarten and the police union St. Maarten NAPB, were not part of the CCSU. Unions representing semi-public workers, St. Maarten Communications Union (SMCU) and Workers Institute for Organised Labour (WIFOL), were also not represented in CCSU.
“In other words, four of the six unions in the Chamber of Labour Unions of which government’s intention was to legislate changes in the labour conditions of their workers, were not represented in the CCSU,” said Elshot.
ABVO St. Maarten was admitted to CCSU in September, the three other unions NAPB, SMCU and WIFOL representing public and semi-public workers were still not at the table to negotiate the proposal of government (imposed by the Dutch government) to change the labour conditions of workers and semi-public workers.
Elshot said the Council of Ministers is unlawfully violating Article 81b of the Constitution of St Maarten, which states “The legal regulations in St. Maarten are agreements with other powers and international law organisations, to the extent that they have been ratified for St. Maarten.”
“Until today, there [has been – Ed.] no agreement with the Windward Islands Chamber of Labour Unions. Until today the Prime Minister has not negotiated a consensus with the unions,” she said.
WICLU drafted a memorandum of understanding (MoU) last year and requested a meeting with the Council of Ministers. However, she said this meeting had never happened.
She also mentioned that Members of Parliament (MPs) had invited WICLU to a meeting in September where the unions were able to give MPs an update on the negotiation status and discussions between government and the unions.
“When did the Prime Minister [have] negotiations with the WICLU unions on the cuts adopted in Parliament? When did the Council of Ministers reach an agreement with the unions as a basis for the legislation discussed in Parliament?
“When [did] parties sign an agreement which formed the basis for the legislation presented to advisory bodies the GOA, the SER, the Advisory Council?” Elshot questioned.
She said union representatives in the GOA and the Social Economic Council SER St. Maarten have not seen the draft legislation which was adopted in parliament. “This is in violation of the procedure to establish national legislations and therefore unlawful,” she exclaimed.
In her conclusion, Elshot said the unions will formally denounce these unlawful proceedings to the Ombudsman. She said the Ombudsman has six weeks to review the adopted legislation and WICLU will place a request with the Ombudsman to present the adopted laws to the Constitutional Court.
