Work permit processing
fee may be increased
~ Employers should pay entire amount ~
PHILIPSBURG--The NAf. 800 processing fee for employment permits issued to immigrant workers to legally work on the island may be increased.
Labour and Social Affairs Commissioner Louie Laveist said an adjustment in the fees is being considered to reflect the new system whereby permits are to be issued for a two-year period instead of for one year.
He couldn’t say exactly how much the increase would be for advice is still being sought on the matter but he assured that the fee won’t be doubled.
The Commissioner said the adjustment is necessary since the Council had recently adopted a new approach to issuing permits. Government had announced recently that employment permit requests that meet the criteria would be issued for a period of two years instead of one year, something government considered more convenient for employers and their employees.
“This (new system) would affect the budget of government because if you issue a permit for a fee for a one-year period and you now issue for two years for the same fee, you can imagine that that can have repercussions,” he said. “So we are looking at (the increase) in that general sense.”
He also made it clear that the employers were solely responsible for paying the employment permit processing fee and not the employee. He said under no circumstances should an employee be forced to pay the fee.
The Commissioner said his office had received complaints that many employers were having their employees pay the fees. He said too that some employers pay the fee and subsequently deduct it from their employee’s salary, something he called illegal.
“The law is very clear. When a work permit is requested, that work permit can be requested only by the employer. The employer is the applicant and the employer is the one who must pay the NAf. 800 processing fee,” Laveist said during Wednesday’s Executive Council press briefing.
“If the workers are paying the NAf. 800, they are being gypped by the employer. It is a form of dishonesty if employers are doing that.”
He urged workers who are being forced to pay this fee to report it to the “relevant authorities” such as the Island Labour Department or the Prosecutor’s Office. “This matter is something that should not be taken lightly. Employers should not take this matter lightly because it is dishonesty and it doesn’t bode well for the economic sector for St. Maarten. It is something that has been out there quietly festering and I think it’s time we lift up the mat and take the mud from under the rug.”
Asked what protection is in place for employees who may suffer repercussions after reporting the matter to authorities, Laveist said laws are in place to protect every worker. “All employees have the rights to protection… Not because you are a foreigner means that advantage should be taken of you and that there are no avenues for you. The same laws that apply to a Dutch citizen also apply to a non-national.”
