Unbiased look at the Sint Maarten Elections
With all the excitement over the elections, comments in Monday's paper by the St. Maarten Hospitality and Trade Association (SHTA) on the proposed change in the Civil Code to tackle the abuse of short-term employment contracts should not go unnoticed. SHTA says this will prohibit practically all defined-term contracts and only make the labour market more rigid.
Candidates of various political parties campaigned on the issue, including current Minister of Health, Labour and Social Affairs Cornelius de Weever (DP). Although he often had been blamed for dragging his feet on it, the minister insisted that an integral approach that also involved employment agencies was required; otherwise, the problem just would shift from the repeated use of limited contracts to hiring "temps" rather than taking people in permanent service as normally required by law after a two-month trial period,
However, despite De Weever's efforts to handle this sensitive subject in a responsible way, it turns out the largest private sector organisation on the Dutch side still is not in agreement with what's on the table. Some might argue that's only because SHTA represents the interests of business owners, but this is not entirely true and anyhow very simplistic thinking.
Over the years the association has promoted a healthy tourism economy that benefits entrepreneurs as well as workers and basically all inhabitants who to a great extent depend on the dollars brought in by visitors for their livelihood, whether directly or indirectly. The argument that there is still a gap between the number of skilled local employees and available positions that should be addressed by government through additional education and job-training certainly makes sense.
This newspaper already had questioned the feasibility of a mandatory counterpart system for expatriates because the companies involved cannot be expected to carry the additional financial and organisational burdens this brings while already having invested money, time and effort in the foreign employee. Surely an indiscriminate and across-the-board application would drive up the cost of doing business too much.
While obviously in good company considering the recent statements by Central Bank president-director Emsley Tromp, SHTA is also on the Tripartite Labour Committee where the existing plans were discussed, but apparently no consensus could be reached. The advice to leave the finalisation of this thorny matter to the incoming Cabinet and Parliament is therefore well-taken.
