It goes without saying that things have and will continue to change when it comes to doing business in the age of COVID-19. The Weekender reached out to well-known business owner Michael Ferrier for his take on business and the economy as it stands today.
Ferrier also served in the Public Sector as Commissioner of Transportation, Labour & Social Affairs when St. Maarten was still an Island Territory in the early 2000s, and 19 years later as Interim Minister of Finance for Country St. Maarten.
One change he thinks could have helped businesses endure in the current situation, is something that he had advocated for some 20 years ago: “An overhaul of the 1960s vintage Labour Laws still applicable today.”
The redone version to come, according to him, “must include not only solid protection for the employee (generally seen as the weaker party in the employer/employee relationship), but also some type of protection for the employers, who – in the case of this COVID-19 coronavirus, government-ordered lockdown – unceremoniously find themselves to be 100% responsible for tens of thousands of (legal and illegal) private sector employees’ financial wellbeing/survival, instead of being able to rely on some form of structurally funded government unemployment catch net.
“Case in point: In the USA, government ordered the lockdown (abrupt closure of most businesses). Immediately companies, who saw their sales (and cash intake) drop to zero, furloughed (read: laid off) many or most of their employees, until better times come around.
“These furloughed employees, in most cases, immediately qualified for ‘un-employment financial benefits’, commensurate to a percentage of their last income. Not so on St. Maarten…the government-ordered closure of businesses, because of the Labour Laws, immediately make the employer the responsible party.
“But this is no time to re-start the discussions on the fate of our Labour Laws,” says Ferrier. “We need to prepare as best as we can to re-brand, re-think, re-open our St. Maarten/Saint Martin destination and businesses for when the engine of our one-pillar economy can go from idle to full speed ahead once again.
“In the meantime, the private sector has to applaud the efforts of government in trying to come up with a properly-funded Sint Maarten Stimulus & Relief Plan (SSRP).”
Back to his take on business and the economy: As the owner of the two NAPA auto, truck & marine parts stores (NAPA-SXM), Ferrier and the very involved management team voluntarily closed shop on March 18, before the official lockdown order by government went into effect on April 5.
As an essential company, NAPA-SXM could have stayed open, but the decision was made out of concern for the safety of staff and customers, considering how quickly the new coronavirus was spreading.
Fast forward to today, two months later, the company has been open again for the past week, doing curb-side-only sales, and has already noticed a serious dip in business as compared to the same period in previous years.
The outlook for the short- and medium-term is not very bright, he says, as the island’s economy is so heavily dependent on tourism, whether companies cater to that industry directly or indirectly.
In addition, Ferrier says he and his team are eagerly awaiting the unobstructed reopening of all border points between the North and the South sides of the island. He says he joins “the ever louder becoming calls from true St. Martiners” to reopen the borders of Soualiga.
“This pandemic has proven that because of our dual nationalities and therefore two totally separate forms of government, the very thing that made us famous (One Island, One People, One Destination) is now under serious threat,” he says.
“The powers that be (both locally, as well as nationally) must rethink what to do when disaster hits this 37-square-mile spec in the Caribbean. There must be a one-size-fits-all approach for the entire island.
“It cannot be that the Treaty of Concordia has now been thrown out the window. It cannot be that after hundreds of years of undisturbed free-flow of people and services across what used to be imaginary borders, we will from now on in times of crises be separated from our family and friends,” he asserts.
As for NAPA-SXM, he says that employees were kept at full pay throughout the lockdown, and that communications between them and their employer remain on a high and cooperative level. “Everyone is committed to do what it takes, including across the board sacrifices, to guarantee the continued success of the company.”
Ferrier, in the interview, did not hide his appreciation for the staff and management team of the business. He says he is convinced that despite the many hurdles still ahead of the island and, by extension, of the NAPA-SXM stores and employee family, the best is yet to come – provided everyone does his/her share.
For now, at the NAPA Auto, Truck & Marine stores, he says they can’t wait to again be able to provide top notch customer service in an environment adapted for the new COVID-19 influenced situation, which includes sanitising stations, facemasks for everyone wanting to be on the inside of the stores, plexiglass protective staff-from-customer separators, new floor signs enforcing appropriate social distancing, and constant wipe-downs of door handles, counter tops and other surfaces.
And so begins the new normal.
