The employees of the Federal Tax Office are calling for a 25 percent allowance on top of their gross salaries for excessive work, with an already understaffed office and are also asking that this allowance be retroactive from January 1, 2008.
Last week the employees walked off of their jobs in protest and expressed their dissatisfaction with the manner in which they are treated compared to their colleagues in Curacao.
In a letter sent to the Minister of Finance of the Netherlands Antilles Ersilia de Lannooy requesting the allowance they requested that they be treated as their colleagues in Curacao and as a result should have the same benefits. The Finance Minister was quoted as saying that the employees on St. Maarten work less and their dealings with the public leave a lot to be desired.
In the meantime, Minister Duncan said that a representative of the Minister will be visiting the island this week and will be providing the civil servants with the relevant information and he is expected to make an assessment of the situation in discussion with the representative of the Island Government. He said that the representative will also see what the needs of the department are and provide the Federal Government with a cost analysis.
Duncan said that they have secured the funding from USONA and will provide St. Maarten with a Quartermaster.
He said that he has met briefly with the Commissioner of Constitutional Affairs Sarah Wescott-Williams with regard to the execution of this project. He said that the representative of his office is expected to report to him within 10 days with all the relevant details.
Questions were also raised with regard to the evaluation of the workers and particularly the letter that is being sent to them concerning their salary scale. One employee enquired about her evaluation for 2008 that has not been done as yet. Duncan assured her that there will be no problem because if they did not received their evaluation but received the letter then they will be able to make a decision and either reject or agree with the evaluation.
He also outlined his position with regard to personnel affairs and mentioned the letter that was sent to the Minister of Finance and said that his ministry is willing to offer any advice. What was ironic he said was that the court case will be handled by his department and stressed that they will be taking ‘a passive role' in the matter since they will be hiring an attorney to handle the case.
He said that they further discussed the transfer of the civil servants from the Federal Government to the Island Government and has issued them with a copy of the decree that was signed at the Westin Resort on November 24, 2008. He explained that the document is very detailed with regard to the transfer of personnel from the Federal Government to the Island Government.
He indicated that by the end of December the Federal Government will cease to exist and as a result all there will be no further elections for the Federal Government. When this happens he said all governments must have a democratic base and once this is done them the term of office for the Island Council will be shortened. New elections for the new country are expected to be conducted by the end of the year since all the powers will be transferred to the Island Governments.