Philipsburg: --- Members of the Union met in two separate meetings at the parliament building on Friday with two of the three senators on St. Maarten to enlighten them on the present saga taking place with the FZOG and pensioners. The first meeting was held with Senator Erno Labega. Labega in an invited comment said that held meetings with the various unions who have concerns regarding the pensioners and their FZOG insurance. Labega said since the FZOG has transferred their administrative to SVB that seemingly is causing some problems. He said right now pensioners are paying more than they are receiving less and the employees are receiving more than the pensioners.
Labega said since the switch took place their has been an increase in the premiums for the pensioners while their benefits are decreasing. He said right now the pensioners are paying more for less benefits something that should not be or tolerated. He said the unions are also concerned about the fact that the pensioners do not enjoy the same benefits as those that are currently working. He said based on what he was made to understand is that current employees are enjoying more than pensioners who gave years of service.
Labega said that the fact FZOG transferred their administrative work to SVB is already problematic since SVB would not be able to take any decisions on their behalf. He said right now FZOG does not have a representative on St. Maarten who would be able to take decisions in the case of an emergency. Basically every decision has to be taken in Curacao, while the staff of SVB would be over burdened doing their administrative work. “One has to know FZOG is a separate funds who have their own employees in Curacao. The only common ground with this is that the director that handles SVB funds is also the director of FZOG funding.’ Labega said.
He said the intention of the unions is that they are lobbying parliament to look into this matter so that they at least have equal opportunity. The unions believe if parliament should intervene then they would be able to bring the benefits of the current and former employees even. He said the Minister of finance is expected to be in parliament next week Tuesday and the St. Maarten senators would be raising this issue with him since it is on the agenda.
He said they would be looking into raising the level of health care to that of the Netherlands based on article 43 which was signed by the Netherlands where it states that health care benefits to the signatory countries should be the same. He said the unions pointed out the health care level in the Netherlands Antilles particularly St. Maarten is at a lesser level than that of the Netherlands. Already this is raising tension in SVB because they are ones receiving the public while decisions are been taken in Curacao.
This treaty he said clearly stipulated in Article 43 that all health care benefits has to be the same, something that has already been implemented in France. Labega said this matter was raised two months ago in parliament where several unions brought forward the issue where the grievances were outlined. He said since then their has been additional grievances and the idea of the meetings were to bring all senators locally up to par.
Also meeting with the unions was senator Rudulph Samuel. Samuel just last week took over from former senator Marlin now leader of government. Samuel said his meeting was geared as fact finding mission.
