The letter states that Tropical Shipping has terminated their agreement with St. Maarten Port Services (SMPS) and their contract with the company ended since February 2011 while Crowley Shipping has informed the company that St. Maarten is not a profitable market for them and as such they cancelled their agreement with St. Maarten Ports Services (SMPS). The General Manager of SMPS said in his letter to the workers that the company tried to replace the loose cargo business in order to re-establish their warehouse operation and that has been unsuccessful. SMPS said with only one shipping service they are forced to reduce their operations personnel.
The twelve employees who were notified on Thursday are permanent workers of the company but management claims that they are not able to find suitable positions for them within the company.
The mutual termination goes into effect as of August 12 2011. The employees will get their gross salary until the date of termination and they will also be paid for their unused vacation days. SMPS will also pay the workers their severance payment to the sum of Naf. 5,191.92 gross which they said is based 100% on the workers "cessantia payments" which should amount to three months salaries. The company also offers to pay the workers an additional three months salary which also amounts to Naf. 5,192.92 should they agree to the mutual termination.
It should be noted that SMPS encountered the same problem in 2009 when the company submitted a request at the labour department to lay off all 40 of its workers when they were notified that Tropical Shipping had intended to terminate its contract with SMPS. The owners of SMPS later sold the company in May last year to the Gioia brothers. The court had also ruled that Tropical was within its rights to terminate its contract with SMPS.
So far the new owners of SMPS did not submit a request at the labour department to terminate its workers. SMN News contacted the labour department on Friday and they said they did not receive any request for termination from SMPS.
Minister of Labour Cornelius De Weever said he had no knowledge of the company's intention to terminate its workers up to late Friday afternoon.
Click here to view the letter that was sent to the employees.
