Philipsburg, Sint Maarten — Leader of the Unified Resilient Sint Maarten Movement (URSM) Dr. Luc Mercelina expressed his concerns with the current situation concerning the placement and retroactive payment of Justice workers.
“It is my hope that we are truly nearing the end of this unfortunate and unnecessary process. For too long our men and women in the Police force have sacrificed their lives, their own families to protects the people of Sint Maarten, while their employer continued to neglect and disrespect them. I do hope that once and for all the Council of Ministers, not only the Minister of Justice, finalize this process and finalize it in a correct manner as there are too many uncertainties regarding whether or not a placement letter would be sufficient to be able to collect any retro-active payments.” stated Dr. Mercelina.
When asked what he meant with uncertainties, Dr. Mercelina explained that a placement letter is merely one step of the entire process of legally being placed as a civil servant and collecting the retroactive monies that are owed. He zoomed in on the need for all relevant pieces of legislations linked to this process to go through the full legislative process and be properly published. He referred to the different functions books within the Ministry of Justice and the “Rechtspositie of the Police”. Dr. Mercelina also questioned whether the Minister of Finance would be able to pay-out the monies owed to the Justice workers. The leader of URSM hinted towards a 2023 budget for country Sint Maarten that has not been approved as yet.
Dr. Mercelina concluded by thanking the men and women in the Justice Ministry for their continued hard work and hopes that this process will soon be over.
