Former Cems employees demand missed out wages

March 18, 2011 6:50 AM

Twenty former employees from Institution Curaçao Emergency Medical Services (Cems) believe they were treated unfairly when they started working at Cems in 2000.

At the time, the ambulance service was classified with the Public Health Authority (GGD). In April 2002, the ambulance service became independent and allocated to the meanwhile bankrupt declared Cems. The former employees demand with retroactive effect the sum of the difference between the wages received upon their employment with the Cems, consisting of the basic salary increased with an allowance of 20 percent on the one hand and the last received salary with the island government of the other hand.

The civil servants, who were already employed with the ambulance service of the previous island territory Curaçao, were given the possibility to be employed with Cems under a civil labor relation. All of these civil servants had made use of this possibility. However, four years later, it appeared they were classified in a higher scale. In 1995, the island government namely started job evaluation rounds. This process regarded a revision and an aftercare phase. The revision phase was completed in that same year, and all parties involved were informed o the results. The aftercare phase was completed three years later in 1998, but for no apparent reasons, the results of this phase were not announced. The aftercare phase entailed that several functions – amongst which those of the former Cems employees – were classified in a higher scale with retroactive effect.
According to the National Regulation social statute independence of government services, civil servants may not go downhill financially and legally with their transition to a corporation that replaces the government service by means of independence.The legal position valid at that moment for the person involved remains effective. The former employees state they did go downhill in their legal position upon the transition of the island government to the Cems.

Court
The claimants turned in a petition with the court on December 20th. The court was to hear this case yesterday but it has now been adjourned due to the declaration of bankruptcy. The claimants now have to submit a claim to curator Paul van de Laarschot. Lawyer Saran Inderson is acting for the former Cems employees.
During their employment with the former island territory, the former employees received an income consisting of a salary and an allowance. This allowance regarded an availability allowance paid by the island government as compensation for the fact that civil servants employed with the ambulance service worked more hours in a structural manner than the legal forty-hour week. Upon the moment of transition, Cems offered them an employment contract, whereby the salary corresponded exactly with that received by the employees at that moment from the government. It subsequently appeared that they were disadvantaged. At the time of the transition of the claimants from an employment with the former island territory to Cems, the employees were not informed about the results of the aftercare phase. After all, these results placed them in a higher scale, and consequently a higher salary and allowance. It was only in 2004, they were informed what their actual legal position entailed after the aftercare phase. Since then, the ambulance personnel have held several conversations with the management of Cems. At the time of Cems’ establishment, the latter could not wait for the aftercare phase and used the ‘old’ salary of the ambulance personnel as a starting salary. After the results from the aftercare phase became known, Cems neglected to adjust the salaries, while the National Regulation social statute independence of government services departs from the fact that Cems retrospectively had to consider circumstances such as the later announcement of a job evaluation. Due to Cems’ refusal to adjust the salary of the personnel upon employment, the employees missed income for years.

(Source: National Newspaper Amigoe)

17 March 2011