Philipsburg:--- Twelve employees of Colombian Emeralds International are fighting to get their cessentia payments from their employers who notified them at the beginning of June 2013 that they will be closing both shops on St. Maarten as of June 30th, 2013. According to one of the employees, they received a letter on June 6th, 2013 dated June 1st, 2013 informing them that the company (Colombian Emeralds International), whose head office is in Barbados will be closing both shops on St. Maarten as of June 30th, 2013.
The letter which was signed by the Human Resources Manager Mrs. Dale Niles states that the company has been suffering net earning losses for a number of years now and this is the reason for them to close down. One of the workers who worked for the company for 26 years told SMN News that Mrs. Niles promised to pay the workers out by June 10th, 2013 but to date she has not done so. The employee said that the company did not follow the labour laws of St. Maarten prior to sending them the letter and neither did they file for bankruptcy. The 12 workers showed up at the Department of Labour on Thursday morning where they met with the head of the Labour Department Mrs. Peggy Ann Dros Richardson who informed them that she was contacted on Wednesday by Mrs. Niles who also promised that she would pay them out. The employee said that the company is now saying that they wanted to close both stores, the one located on Old Street and the one in the departure lounge of Princess Juliana International Airport. The worker further explained that Mrs. Niles told the head of the Labour Department that they submitted a bid to maintain their store at PJIAE and if they are successful then they want the workers from Old Street to go and work at PJIAE.
The employee said the workers at PJIAE also received the same letter informing them that they will be dismissed as of June 30th. "We have workers who worked for 26 years, 23 years, 22 years, and 5 years for the company. The company acted illegally and the letter they sent us is also illegal. On top of that Mrs. Niles lied to us about the cessentia payments. We do not want to go to the Airport because the workers of that store are our colleagues and they too deserve to be paid out."
SMN News asked Minister of Labour Cornelius de Weever if was aware of the ongoing labour dispute at Colombian Emeralds and he said that he was updated on the issue. Minister De Weever said the head of the Department of Labour and the Secretary General are busy investigating the case.
