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PHILIPSBURG--TelEm Group Supervisory Board Chairman and Mediator Rafael Boasman has responded to conflict-of-interest criticisms levelled against him by the St. Maarten Communications Union (SMCU).

SMCU had called on Boasman to step down from his position on the supervisory board as it was a conflict of interest with his position as Mediator.

Boasman told The Daily Herald in an invited comment that although the board did not handle the day-to-day operations of the company and only held a supervisory function he had made it clear that he would not mediate in any labour issues with TelEm because of his position as Mediator.

Boasman has been on the TelEm board since 2008 and was appointed Mediator in 2011. Since then he had made his position clear to the then-Minster of Labour as well as to the unions.

He said if TelEm or any other company had a labour issue and the Mediator for whatever reason could not handle the case, there was an option to assign an extraordinary mediator who was acceptable to both parties.

He said he could not understand why the union was picking on this issue when he already had made it clear that he would not mediate in matters involving TelEm, to avoid a conflict of interest situation. Boasman said he successfully had negotiated and resolved issues between SMCU and other companies.

TelEm, he added, has just completed a major restructuring, possibly one of the biggest of its nature in St. Maarten, and this had been completed without any problems or threats of strike amongst workers. Boasman said this had been completed successfully with him holding both the Supervisory Board Chairman and Mediator positions.

The law specifies when a mediator can and should become involved in a labour dispute, including cases in which there are labour referendum requests; if employees are stuck in Collective Labour Agreement (CLA) talks; or if there is a dispute in the interpretation of a CLA, amongst other cases that can lead to industrial action.

"The principal issue is that parties try to resolve their problems and only when they cannot, then they call on the mediator or the mediator can decide to get involved in order to avoid labour unrest," he said.

A mediator does not handle individual labour disputes. "If a worker has a problem with overtime or not being paid correctly, this is not something that a mediator will intervene in. These matters are dealt with by the Labour Affairs Department. The mediator deals with collective labour issues," he explained.

Asked why he thought the union was hammering on this issue, Boasman said, "I have no idea." He is open to discussion with the union if it has a gripe with him.

He also gave his side of the story as it relates to the issue the union raised regarding a complaint the union made with the Ombudsman.

SMCU had told the media last week that there had been an incident in the past when Boasman in his capacity as Government Mediator had failed to respond to correspondence from SMCU to mediate in issues regarding the TelEm Group. After the union pursued the matter, promises had been made that an extraordinary mediator would be appointed, but this never occurred, SMCU said.

The union said the former Minister of Labour, Cornelius de Weever, had intervened at one point by calling a union official by telephone on the matter, but nothing had been done about the matter.

The union provided correspondence from Ombudsman Nilda Lynch-Arduin in which Boasman acknowledged that he could not meet with SMCU as it was a conflict-of-interest situation and that an extraordinary mediator would be appointed.

It was mentioned that the extraordinary mediator who would have been appointed for this matter had returned to the Netherlands, prompting the Ombudsman to note that this was no reason not to follow up on the request for mediation for more than seven months.

Boasman said in response that it had been agreed that someone would be appointed to handle the dispute in question, but the union and management had already agreed on a third party from Curaçao to mediate; therefore, there was no need for an extraordinary Mediator to be appointed. This information was not shared with the Ombudsman at the time. He said the union should be forthcoming on these matters.

He said what was important was that the Mediator "should be able to stand above these types of issues, because to mediate between parties the mediator would have to have the trust and confidence of parties and this is what I have always tried to do. This is why I clearly stated that I will not mediate in cases of TelEm."