SMPA, UFA sign first-ever performance-based CLA

PHILIPSBURG--After some six months of hard negotiations and the intervention of Labour Mediator Derrick Holiday, St. Maarten Ports Authority (SMPA) and United Federation of the Windward Antilles UFA signed the first-ever performance-based collective labour agreement (CLA) on Friday.

This CLA for 2011-2013 will see salary increases and other remuneration for the 27 SMPA employees based on their work performance and productivity. While employees have to earn their increases via good work ethics, SMPA, as part of the St. Maarten Harbour Group of Companies, must ensure the development of their skills via continued training and upgrading programmes.

Holiday, in whose office the CLA was signed, said it was indeed a happy day. "When it all started it was tough. It wasn't clear when they would come together, but they did."

The major sticking point in the CLA negotiations was the performance-based remuneration ? a relatively novel approach for the country's labour industry.

UFA Vice President Rafee Arrindell said the union was all for the workers and had fought a tough battle with management for this new CLA that ultimately would give the workers a better living. Negotiations, he added, had been give and take. He urged other workers to join UFA because "working with UFA, things can move forward."

UFA advisor Willy Haize also was happy with the outcome of the negotiations and the final CLA signing. "It's time to shake hands and move the company to the highest level."

Harbour Group CEO Mark Mingo said the performance-based CLA benefited the company and the employees. Some people, he said, stay in the same position for five or more years within some companies and would like to move up within the ranks. For the harbour group this new CLA provides a steppingstone, with both sides ? employees and management ? having to working together for betterment.

Harbour Chief Financial Officer Ton van Kooten thanked UFA for its efforts. He pointed out that this was the first CLA for SMPA since 2006. In the past five years, the interval was covered by a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the union and the company.

Also present for the signing were Harbour Group Human Resources Manager Iris Scot, UFA President Francis Olivacce and UFA member Linsey Weeks.

Source: http://www.thedailyherald.com/islands/1-islands-news/21406-smpa-ufa-sign-first-ever-performance-based-cla.html

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