CLA signed for
airport workers
AIRPORT--After an intense negotiating process, the Princess Juliana International Airport Operating Company PJIAE management and civil servants union ABVO signed a new Collective Labour Agreement (CLA) for the next three years.
The new CLA regulates the labour conditions for almost 200 of the 270 personnel at PJIAE. The signing took place in the departure hall of the airport on Saturday, where employees and members of the board of directors were invited.
PJIAE president Eugene Holiday said in his speech before the official signing took place that the new CLA placed complete emphasis on performance-based remuneration for the employees.
“As such, salary increases and, by extension, secondary benefits will as of now be dependent on the performance of individual employees. This insures a better relationship between productivity increases and salary increases,” Holiday said.
In this regard, the new CLA, depending on the performance of individual employees, provides for annual salary increases of up to maximum of 4.75 per cent.
Holiday: “Additionally, the CLA provides other core employee benefits such as an improved vacation allowance increasing in phases from seven per cent in 2008 up to 7.5 per cent in 2010, a comprehensive private medical coverage for all employees introduced in 1997 and an extensive pension plan introduced in 1998.”
He commended the employees and ABVO for the change in approach with full emphasis on performance-based salaries, which represents a significant step forward in the path towards increased commercialisation and customer-oriented operation at the airport.
ABVO president Ignacio expressed sincere satisfaction that the relationship between workers and the company had grown since the signing of the first CLA, creating a common ground in the interest of the workers as well as the company.
Ignacio said it would be the last CLA he would sign with PJIAE, as he was serving his last term as president of ABVO.
Chairman of the PJIAE board of directors Michael Alexander said it was a festive moment. He congratulated the workers, the ABVO and PJAIE management for the new CLA.
“In ABVO, we have a realistic partner. Not an adversary, but a partner wanting the best for the employees and the company. ABVO fought like a lion for the furtherance of the rights and the material progress and interests of its members, but was also mature enough to fathom what was realistically possible under the given circumstances,” said Alexander.
