PHILIPSBURG–St. Maarten Communications Union (SMCU) President Ludson Evers continues to be amazed at tactics being played by TelEm Group management who want to dismiss former St. Maarten Cable TV workers taken under TelEm Group employment recently.
Court officers served three workers on Tuesday afternoon with letters requesting them to appear in court later this month to answer a petition filed by TelEm to dismiss them.
Evers said the company’s move “seems like a slap in the face, because the question is: why did we go through all of the process of going to court and appealing cases and dismissal at Labour Department and they [TelEm – Ed.] lost all of those cases, then to come with this.”
He said this puts the workers in continuous limbo as to their employment status, as all efforts are being made to terminate their services. Although the Labour Ministry’s Secretary-General recently denied TelEm Group permission to terminate the 18 Cable TV workers’ labour agreements, the company seems determined to have the court to terminate their services.
“It is time for the Government to step in and make the Government-owned company comply with the Labour Ministry’s Secretary-General’s decision to keep the workers at TelEm. What is worse is that there are 20 positions available at TelEm. In a previous meeting it was agreed that we would start placing these 18 workers in the 20 vacant spots available.
“In an email last week from Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Kendall Dupersoy, he said that they will not place the Cable TV workers in those positions and if they are interested, they would have to apply like everyone else. We are not in agreement with this and have already informed our lawyers to fight the case in court if need be. I just hope that the Government notices what is going on and how this company is not adhering to Government’s Labour Department,” stated Evers on Tuesday.
He contends that, given the situation at TelEm, all Cable TV workers can be placed within the company, which is trying to get rid of the workers at all cost.
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/76041-telem-group-still-moving-to-dismiss-cable-tv-workers
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