The Tug of War Over the SER
The Social Economic Council (SER), one of St. Maarten’s independent advisory organizations, is currently caught up in a battle over its board restructuring. The SER was without a board for over a year due to an impasse recently taken to court, between the Employers Council St. Maarten (ECSM) and the government’s mandated employer organization- the Soualiga Employers Association (SEA). The dispute is over which organization has the most members.
According to SER’s website, “the council consists of three representatives from employers organizations, three representatives from employees organizations, and three independent experts.” Currently, there are eight members appointed to the board and the ninth (9th) will be determined after the verdict is rendered on September 20. As a temporary solution, Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs requested a legal mandate to allow the SER’s secretary-general to initiate the board - which was done on July 28 - and allow him to call meetings and be the tiebreaker. However, after being vetted the mandate could not give the secretary-general the tiebreaker vote. It's not possible via the SER's legislation.*
This new board’s term is 2020-2023. Now that the board is functioning the SER can have their pending advice supported by the board and the board meetings can now take place. As a result of having no board, matters such as the cost-cutting ordinances, implemented in 2020, that were recently contested in the constitutional court, could not be reviewed for its socio-economic impact. Nevertheless, the Prime Minister stated on July 28’s press briefing that she met with SER’s staff to start a study on the cost of living on St. Maarten, which they started.
The employer council (SEA) the Prime Minister mandated was created via the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (COCI). According to a government press release from last year on June 22, “from its inception, the employer representation on the SER board was unevenly balanced.” It also mentioned “In order to ensure a balanced representation of the employer organizations on the board of the SER, an instruction was given to review the National ordinance of the SER…. The evaluation revealed that the current makeup of the employer representatives on the board is not in line with the principles of the SER.” Besides balancing the employer representation on the board it is unclear how the move will impact the SER.
Former President of COCI supervisory board, Benjamin Ortega, stated in a press release last year that “we are extremely surprised and disappointed in the lack of inclusion and respect that the Employer Council has shown towards the country by disregarding the SER and the mandated request from the Prime Minister.” He added that “it is important that the country has a SER board with a variety of businesses and government-owned companies that represent a large group of persons.”
The ECSM disagrees with the move by the Prime Minister. The ECSM is made up of four employer organizations, which are The Sint Maarten Marine Trades Association (SMMTA), the Sint Maarten Hospitality & Trade Association (SHTA), the Indian Merchants Association (IMA), and the Sint Maarten Timeshare Association (SMTA).
According to a recent interview with Paul Henriquez, President of ECSM, “government was exercising undue influence on employers' representation” and ECSM’s differences have to do with a fundamental principle of government involvement in tripartite organizations that need to function independently. Henriquez added that it’s been an ongoing point of contention. He pointed out that the government and COCI already have an established relationship where advice can be given or requested which makes their involvement “strange”.
In response to statements of the lack of diversity in the ECSM, Henriquez said in order to be a member of the council, you need to be an organization that represents employers. SHTA for example has a membership of over 100 organizations which also include several government-owned companies. However, the Prime Minister’s press release last year stated, “this restructuring of the board will allow other large employers such as the Harbor, PIJA, TELEM, GEBE, Indian Merchant Association, and the Chinese Merchant Association just to name a few, the opportunity to partake in the tripartite discussions. As these organizations have never held a seat on the SER.” According to Henriquez, ECSM has reached out to other organizations but no interest was shown for the most part.
*A correction had to be made in the second paragraph. The article originally stated that the SG of SER received the legal mandate to be the tiebreaker until the 9th board member is appointed. That is not the case. The PM's request for his involvement goes against the SER's legislation.
