PHILIPSBURG–Parliament’s Central Committee met with Minister of Public Health, Social Development and Labour Emil Lee on Wednesday afternoon for a discussion about his policy on foreign laborers coming in to work or assist St. Maarten with the rebuilding phase in the aftermath of Hurricanes Irma and Maria.
Lee gave a presentation to the Members of Parliament (MPs) who wanted to find out what the minister’s temporary policy would entail.
The Labour Affairs and Social Services Division recently invoked AB 2013 nr 73 article 7 lid 3 of the National decree containing general measures on the employment of foreign labour. This allows the Ministry to approve an employment permit on a one-time basis for projects related to the reconstruction.
Lee told Parliament that the need for construction workers has increased dramatically post-Irma, to which the Ministry has responded with various skill-building trainings, transition opportunities, employment drives and collaborative job fairs.
These programmes were realised to ensure that local unemployed and interested workers would be offered the opportunity to gain training and employment in the construction sector.
“These efforts have now been exhausted and we have now moved to invoking AB 2013 nr 73 article 7 lid 3 in order to be able to facilitate, in a timely manner, the high demand for workers in construction,” Lee told parliament Wednesday.
He also gave the latest work permit statistics. Of the total 493 requests for the year as of June, 480 were granted and 13 were denied; 76 were for (re)construction, 25 carpenters, 15 electricians, 28 jewellery store personnel, 37 medical personnel and 145 adult entertainers.
Lee said the process is simple. Permit applications will be processed in a less bureaucratic and more efficient way. To save paperwork, the applicant files one group application for all workers in the project. Regular fees have to be paid per applied-for worker.
The conditions of the permit procedure only apply to reconstruction projects as a result of Irma damage. A project has to be finished in a specified period of time, the permit will be granted for one year at a time, with a maximum of three years. The employee must leave the country after the three-year period.
The employers’ obligations are to submit the project plan, including the number of workers needed; to adhere to labour and safety regulations and provide workers with safety equipment such as hard hats and shoes; pay social premiums, including health insurance; to provide adequate housing; to inform the Labour Affairs Agency should a worker leave; to stand as guarantor of the worker; and to ensure persons leave after the project is completed.
Lee gave the MPs an outline of guidelines taken out of the regular request for work permit of a construction worker: The placing of the advertisement, waiting the five-week term for the vacancy; notarized copies of diplomas and references showing experience; after the application is complete the maximum processing time is expected to be two weeks instead of the regular six weeks.
Some of the conditions for these permits are that the applicable taxes and social premiums of the workers are paid and the company must be in good standing with the Tax Administration office. Companies and permit holders are reminded that the permits are non-transferrable, can only be renewed once, and have a duration of maximum three years.
“In other words, you cannot come in on a permit for company A and use that permit to work for company B after. With these conditions we want to ensure that compliance is in place and also that after the reconstruction phase these workers do not become competition for our local workers by remaining on the island. A collaboration with the Ministry of Justice will be enforced to ensure that persons do not ‘outlive’ their stay, based on the end date of their permit,” said Lee. He told MPs that this expedited service will be good for the speedy recovery of St. Maarten’s economy.
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/78070-minister-lee-discusses-relaxing-of-labour-policy-with-parliament
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