Heyliger-Marten requests question hour update on Legal Position with the Minister of Justice | SOUALIGA NEWSDAY

SINT MAARTEN (PHILIPSBURG) - Member of Parliament (MP) Grisha Heyliger-Marten has submitted a request for a “question hour” with the Minister of Justice, the Hon. Anna Richardson. The objective of the question hour is to get clarity on a number of pending items related to the personnel of the Justice Ministry, according to Heyliger-Marten.

“For some time now, I have been trying to get clarity from the Hon. Minister on the progress of regulating the legal positions (“rechtsposities”) of the civil servants employed in the Justice Ministry, HeyligerMarten stated in a press release on Monday.

“During my election campaign, I pledged to stand up against the injustice that the justice workers have been subject to. And while I applaud the Hon. Minister for bringing the rectification process this far, I want to ensure that it is completed without any loopholes. The people who protect us day and night should be the last ones to have to be worried about their financial security”, according to Heyliger-Marten.

The MP referred to a motion passed by Parliament on June 30th, 2021. This motion called for the approved updated scales for KPSM needed to calculate the retroactive payments to the employees concerned finalized within three (3) months after the date of the motion.

The motion also resolved to include all outstanding amounts due to the Justice Ministry’s employees since 2010 that have not been paid out as yet and which are not included in the budget of 2021, in the budget of 2022 and have these amounts paid out no later than December 31st, 2022.

“Thus far, Parliament has not received a complete update of the status of the execution of this motion, and the deadline of December 2022 is right around the corner”, Heyliger-Marten stated. “Civil servants who are entitled to receive what is due to them have been waiting for years now, and this situation needs to be rectified as soon as possible and once and for all”, according to the MP.

“That’s why I decided to request a question hour, so that the Hon. Minister can give an update on the status of the process and provide the much-needed transparency to the general public and justice workers in question”.

“As such, I have also requested the Hon. Minister to provide Parliament with the advises on the process as sought from the Department of Legal Affairs and Legislation (JZ&W), the CCSU and the Council of Advice. I look forward to all this information being provided to Parliament before we go on recess in December”, Heyliger-Marten concluded.