Communications Union takes
TelEm management to court
PHILIPSBURG--The St. Maarten Communications Union (SMCU) is taking management of the TelEm Group to court over a dispute concerning the payment of the cost-of-living adjustment in 2006. The court case is set for February 26.
President Director of the TelEm Group Edward Benjamin said that as far as he was aware, the company had paid out the cost-of-living adjustment for 2006 according to procedures. However, he couldn’t say what percentage had been paid to the workers. He said too that he hadn’t yet received any notification of the court case.
SMCU President Ludson Evers said the dispute involved the percentage to be paid to the workers. He said TelEm was disputing the 2.3 per cent cost-of-living adjustment indicated by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). The company claims the cost-of-living adjustment for 2006 was 0.3 per cent and is only willing to pay the lower amount to its workers.
The union also will be asking management to pay its attorney’s fees, court and other associated costs incurred from the case. “We have an agreement with the company in the Collective Labour Agreement that any time the cost-of-living adjustment is over two per cent and not exceeding six per cent, the adjustment will be paid to the employee,” Evers said.
He said this had been an issue of concern for some time already. He said management had refused to adhere to the CLA agreement and had sent out a letter to the employees last year maintaining that the cost-of-living adjustment was just 0.3 per cent, which had “created controversy.”
SMCU will be represented by lawyer Denicio Bryson. “It’s a pity that it has to go so far. We have been trying to work along with the company, but the union is not stupid,” Evers said.
The union will also be sending a letter to the Board of Directors requesting a meeting to discuss the financial report of 2006. The union had earlier questioned management’s decision to send the union an unsigned financial statement that was not on the company’s official letterhead.
“We are not accepting the financial report without the company’s heading and that has no signature. If the board can’t give us the financial report we will take them to court also because we will no longer sit and discuss (in vain).”
Regarding the court case, Benjamin said, “I heard about it via the press.” Asked whether the news of the court action had come as a surprise he said: “With this union, nothing is a surprise.”
