PHILIPSBURG:--- The St. Maarten Communications Union (SMUC) filed a court case against NV GEBE for failure to implement the Collective Labor Agreement signed by former Temporary Manager Mauricio Dembrook. The case was handled today Tuesday in the Court of First Instance.
SMUC claims that on April 23rd, 2021 SMUC signed an agreement with NV GEBE Temporary Manager Dembrook who agreed that the new collective labor agreement will take effect as of January 2021.
In the agreement parties agreed to suspend eight financial articles, parties agreed to have a meeting during the first week of July 2021 to evaluate the financial situation of GEBE.
SMCU sent GEBE two mails the first one at the end of June 2021 reminding them of the agreement and that parties had to meet the first week of July 2021, SMUC said that the company did not reply to their communication. The second email was the first week of August 2021 and the company again did not respond to the email from SMUC.
The SMCU sent two letters from their lawyer and GEBE who again did not reply to those letters. SMUC President Ludson Evers said on December 2021 GEBE sent a letter to the union informing the union that they will not sign the new CLA because of the temporary law of 12.5% reduction of the employees’ benefits.
Due to the reasons were given by NV GEBE, the union has decided to file a court case against the Government-owned company. The decision of the court is expected to on April 19th, 2022.
