~ CEO Mingo says contractors must follow labor laws of St. Maarten.~
PHILIPSBURG:— Workers that are working for the Princess Juliana International Airport (PJIAE) has contacted SMN News claiming that they are being taken advantage of by the American Company that is working on the mold remediation at PJIAE.
The workers claim that the contractor AAR Corp that was granted the contract in November 2020 has 12 workers working at PJAIE and those workers are not legally registered on St. Maarten, they claim that the workers are not paying the necessary dues to USZV or even the tax office, such as income tax. SMN News did verify at the various offices and no registration for the company has been found locally unless the company registered under another name that has not been made known.
While the local sub-contractor Tidal Wave has fully complied with the country’s labor laws the disgruntled workers stated.
In an email to CEO Brian Mingo on Tuesday SMN News asked Mingo if the company that was awarded the contract has 12 employees that are working on the island that are not registered and if those workers are not paying their dues to the government of St. Maarten and other entities such as USZV. Mingo was also asked if PJIAE granted the company any sort of exemption and if such was done then he could further explain under which labor law the exemption was granted.
Mingo in his response said that PJAIE did engage the services of AAR Corp with the understanding that they have to follow the guidelines for employment according to the labor laws of St. Maarten.
Mingo further explained that in addition there is a GRM (Grievance Redress Mechanism) in which employees of contractors can escalate any concerns they have regarding the works at PJIAE.
To this day, PJIAE has not received any grievances from the workers. The project team is aware of the situation you have inquired about. PJIAE will look further into the matter.
