Unbiased look at the Sint Maarten Elections
Philipsburg, St. Maarten, —MP Wescot-Williamshas expressed her disappointment that the publication of the new Civil CodeBook as far as this regards employment contracts (shortterm contracts), the bookdoes not include any of the amendments made byParliament in 2019.
Now I can understand why the Minister of VSA was so evasive whenhe wasrecently asked about short term labor contracts, locally referred to as 6-months contracts, the MPstated. I wonder if the Minister is even aware of the current status.
But how did we get here in the first place?The Civil Code of Sint Maarten was adopted from the Netherlands Antillean Civil Code and at the time of the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles, several changes to the Civil Code were in process, such as e.g. Book 2 of the Civil Code that was revised and approved by the Sint Maarten Parliament in 2013.
In 2015, Parliament received the revisedbook on labor contracts. A complete new book was hereby created forlabor in the Civil Code.TheGovernment at the time subjected the labor proposals to tripartite discussions, before the handling inParliament of the new Title 10 inBook 7 of the Civil Code.the MP explained.
During the handling inParliament,amendments were presented to include restrictions on shortterm contracts (no more thantwocontracts and or a period oftwoyears); extension of maternity leave to16weeks and creation of paternity leave of 7 days. These amendments were presented by former MP Tamara Leonard and myself.
These changes would have gone into effect byNationalDecree, in other words theGovernment would decide on the date that these changes to the labor law would go into effect.
Disappointingly,the publication of the labor book of the Civil Code by theGovernment does not include any of the amendments submitted by former MP Leonard and myself and approved byParliament in 2019,MP Wescot-Williams elaborated.
To clarify further, then there is this constant fuss inParliament about an initiative law amendment of 2011 by the NA faction to address short-term labor contracts that –in the view of some MPs– is being frustrated.
However, the changes in the Civil Code as mentionedbefore,are of a complete different nature than what was presented in 2011by the NA faction.Conversely,this 2011 amendment is still atParliament and could be picked up by the initiators who are stillMembers of Parliamentif so desired.
