WILLEMSTAD – An initiative proposal to amend the National Ordinance on Labor Regulations 2000 has formally been forwarded to the Council of Advice. This follows a request submitted by the parliamentary faction MAN-PIN to the chair of the Curaçao Parliament.
In its letter, the MAN-PIN faction states that it received the advisory opinion of the Social Economic Council (SER) on the initiative proposal in December. According to the faction, the proposal is now ready to proceed to the next stage of the advisory process and has therefore been submitted for review by the Council of Advice.
The proposed amendment aims to introduce a significant change to the Labor Regulations by extending the same statutory protections enjoyed by most employees to workers in the aviation, port, and maritime sectors. Until now, employees in these sectors have largely fallen outside the standard provisions of the Labor Regulations 2000, as their work has traditionally been classified as special and internationally oriented.
In its advice to Parliament, the SER recommended removing these sector-specific exceptions and aligning labor rules for aviation, port, and shipping workers with those applicable to the wider labor market. According to the council, this would strengthen protections related to working hours, rest periods, overtime, and compensation for work performed on public holidays. At the same time, the SER cautioned that such changes are likely to result in higher labor costs for employers in the affected sectors.
With the submission to the Council of Advice, the initiative proposal has entered a new formal phase in the legislative process. The proposal will now undergo further legal scrutiny before it can be debated and potentially adopted by the Curaçao Parliament.
