PHILIPSBURG–The Court of First instance has ordered Budget Marine N.V. to pay full wages to eight of its employees who were terminated in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma.
The marine equipment wholesaler, which employs 50 workers, was damaged during the storm and suffered even more from looting of its inventory and supplies.
According to the company, its economic situation already was not rosy prior to the storm, with declining sales. This downward trend was only reinforced by the downward trend caused by Irma.
Budget Marine said sales figures had dropped by 50 per cent compared with 2016. The company is expecting a slow recovery. The prognosis for 2018 is that sales will be 30 per cent below those in 2016. Negotiations have started with the insurance company, but these have not yet been finalised.
If the level of cost, of which 50 per cent is for workers’ salaries, remains unchanged, the employer would suffer a loss of US $429,000, according to its prognosis. To avoid bankruptcy, savings to the amount of $300,000 on labour cost need to be found, attorney-at-law Jeroen Veen stated on behalf of Budget Marine.
As a first step, the company sent a memo to staff members on September 22, 2017, stating that to ensure the company’s survival and to avoid (mass) dismissals, the working hours of employees and their commensurate salaries would have to be adjusted so that they would be working for three days a week instead of five days and pay would be adjusted by cutting wages by 40 per cent.
“We are forced to take this temporary measure due to the exceptional circumstances we are in. In our decision-making, we have taken continuity of the company and, by that, job security for all of the employees on the long term as starting point. We strongly intend to get through this without any (forced) dismissals,” Budget Marine stated in the memo.
Workers Institute for Organised Labour (WIFOL) informed the employer on behalf of employees that they did not agree with the reduction in working hours.
On November 27, 2017, eight employees received a letter of termination from their employer, which they declined to sign. Their dismissal would result in a cost saving of $218,000 per year, according to Budget Marine. In principle the “Last In, First Out” rule should be followed, but many of the candidates for dismissal did not have the proper skills and “enthusiasm” to work at a different department, the company claimed.
On December 19, 2017, Budget Marine requested Labour Office permission for dismissal. The eight workers signed a statement at the Labour Office in which they stated they did not agree with their employer’s request. They were informed that they would be heard, but this never happened. Instead, the Ministry of Public Health, Social Development and Labour Secretary-General gave Budget Marine permission for termination of the labour agreements.
Represented in Court by attorney Roland Duncan, the workers called on the Court to declare their termination null and void, and to order their employer to pay them their full wages since Hurricane Irma, plus a fine for delay on the amounts due.
In its decision of June 20, the Court stated that the procedure to obtain permission for dismissal had become an “empty formality,” especially because the motivation for the dismissals was considered “meaningless.”
The Judge considered the permission for dismissal illegitimate and stated that the eight employees should receive their full salaries since October 2017, up to and including April 7, 2018, which is the date on which their labour agreements were terminated. Payments are to include the statutory increases of 10 per cent, and legal interest.
Any further decisions in this case were held until the sitting of the Court in Labour Cases of August 22. During this hearing Budget Marine will have to provide an overview of its workforce by the end of 2017, a specification of the salaries and Cessantia severance pay paid to its employers, as well as a report on insurance payments received to cover hurricane damage.
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/78109-court-orders-budget-marine-to-pay-full-wages-to-8-workers
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