PHILIPSBURG - The St. Maarten Hospitality & Trade Association (SHTA), the largest business representative on the island, representing over 160 companies in the tourism and trade industry on the island, is concerned about two highly controversial labor issues, the Counterpart Program and the Short-Term Contracts.
It is clear that supply doesn’t meet demand on the labor market, hence a fairly large immigration stream to fill these positions: up until the moment that there are enough qualified nationals to fill all vacancies. In the meantime, the gap between insufficiently trained/skilled local employees and available positions should be addressed by Government by additional education or training. This reflects that St. Maarten either has challenges educating its nationals to match the current demand in labor and/or that St. Maarten suffers from “brain drain”. In either case, the cost of rectifying this cannot be levied unto the private sector.
The Counterpart Program places the burden of training local employees for positions that currently - due to non-availability of qualified nationals - require work permits on the private sector who then, in addition to the non-nationals, also have to hire a counterpart for up to 3 years, thereby unfairly increasing the cost of doing business. This program would be an unbearable financial burden for most medium and/or small businesses, but also not be conducive or attractive for any business to establish their operations on the Dutch side of the island.
The proposed change to Civil Code, Art. 614.a, which intends to regulate the Short-Term Contracts, prohibits practically all defined term contracts and will only make the labor market more rigid.
Adopting the two proposals will significantly increase unemployment. According to many (international and local) experts, most recently by Dr. Emsley Tromp, who again commented on this in his 2013 Economic Report, stating that St. Maarten needs to urgently decrease the rigidity in the labor market and lower the cost of doing business.
Handling labor matters that will have a detrimental effect on our economy, during the time between the elections and the installment of the new Government, also referred to as the “Lame-Duck Sessions”, could be viewed as undemocratic, as no one can be held accountable for any legislation passed during this period. The voters can no longer have their say and Parliamentarians and the Government already on their way out cannot be sent home. Furthermore, it would be outrageous to disregard the amount of opposition against these issues from the Private Sector and the Labor Unions.
SHTA would like therefore urge the current Government and Parliament to focus their attention on the Annual Accounts for 2011 and 2012 before their last days in office. These are matters that still fall under the responsibilities of the current Parliament, and are already long overdue and should, as stipulated by law, form the basis for a realistic 2015 budget.
The SHTA is dedicated to bringing quality to all aspects of life on St. Maarten by promoting sustainable economic development for its members in cooperation with the social partners and the creation of a fair marketplace. For more information please contact our offices at 542-0108 or visit our website at www.shta.com.
