Today Newspaper St. Maarten

Sacked Simpson Bay Resort workers urged to visit Wifol

St. Maarten – The 80 workers who were terminated by the Simpson Bay Resort Management Company (SBRMC) are urged to visit the Windward Institute for Organized Labour (Wifol) to ensure that their case is brought before the resort’s trustees, attorneys Rik and Gert Bergman.
Wifol President Theophilus Thompson made the call on Thursday during the union’s weekly press briefing adding that he was very optimistic that the trustees would be able to remedy the situation. Two weeks prior, Thompson had stated that he felt the appointment of Rik Bergman was a conflict of interest, but based on the work he has seen done thus far, his fears had been appeased.
For the second time since the trustees’ appointment, the union met with them. On Tuesday discussions centered on “how can it be tolerated by the trustees to have employment agencies filling so called vacant positions and employees who are permanent are at home not being paid by the employer,” Thompson said.
The trustees promised to look into the matter immediately and requested that they receive a list of all of the workers who are still at home since last November.
“Those workers are being asked to report to Wifol immediately to submit their names so that their case can be brought to the attention of the trustee.”
Thompson said that he was hopeful that these persons would be re-employed by the resort in their previous positions.
He added that the resort’s management continues to ignore the Court verdict of April 2 which stipulated that the workers return to their positions and that the company abides by the collective labor agreement (CLA).
Thompson maintains that discussions with the trustees continue to be fruitful. He anticipates that things will move in a positive direction “redeeming the rights of those workers” before the new court verdict is out.
He reiterated that SBRMC continued to flout articles in the CLA that refers to workers being locked out by the company.
“There is so many things that this company is doing that is in violation of the Labour Laws and CLA,” Thompson said.