Bloem: Ask Jorien Wuite why she didn't do her job

January 11, 2012 4:25 AM

PHILIPSBURG--Attorney representing Simpson Bay Resort Management Company (SBRMC) Jairo Bloem has dismissed as absolutely false the claims by the Department of Labour Affairs that it has not taken action on the resort's request to terminate employees due to lack of information from the resort.

Bloem challenged the Department and its Secretary-General Jorien Wuite on Tuesday to produce a single request that she or the department had made for additional information. "The question that should be asked is why the Secretary-General didn't do her job," Bloem said. His statement was supported by Mark Miller of SBRMC, who said Labour Affairs "only has itself to blame for the uncertainty surrounding the issue."
 
Miller said Bloem had requested no less than 10 times that Labour Affairs address the conditional layoff request that SBRMC had filed for 49 persons when it reached an agreement with WIFOL and government, an agreement that ultimately was not ratified by WIFOL.
 
"The reason the request was conditional was as follows: All parties acknowledged that should SBRMC win its appeal, the lower court finding that SBRMC had to abide by a collective labour agreement it was not party to would be eliminated and therefore SBRMC's request to lay off certain workers would be null and void," Miller said.
 
"This was the very reason behind the government's provision of certain guarantees in that same settlement. All parties realised that if SBRMC won the appeal, SBRMC would have spent the previous months paying employees it had no legal obligation to employ, simply because the SBRMC was forced to do so by the Court of First Instance," he added.
 
Miller further explained that formal written requests, with the financial data, had been sent to Labour Affairs on May 26 and May 30, 2011, and "on other dates via electronic mail." Bloem said he had contacted Labour Affairs personally and there had never been a request for additional information, financial information or any other information relevant to the dismissal request.
 
To the contrary, Miller continued, Labour Affairs sent the application to WIFOL and requested its response. "Moreover, Labour Affairs scheduled a date for a hearing before the Labour Committee of SBRMC on the termination request file. Needless to say that unless Labour Affairs considered the application complete, it had absolutely no reason to take referenced actions."
 
Miller and Bloem said they did not know why the Labour Affairs Secretary-General, who is ultimately responsible for granting or not granting a dismissal request, has not insisted that Labour Affairs perform its job by taking a decision.
 
"SBRMC understands that the Department Head of Labour changed, but this does not justify the alleged unawareness of Labour Affairs as to the status of matters and it further does not excuse Labour Affairs' factually incorrect representation of what happened pertaining to the application process, let alone not ensuring that a decision is taken seven months after it was requested," Miller said.

(Source: The Daily Herald Sint Maarten)

11 January 2012