THE HAGUE - The Kingdom Council of Ministers (RMR), in which it should have been decided to cancel the salary cut of 12.5% in the (semi) public sector in Curaçao, Aruba and Sint Maarten, has been called off at the last minute. "Because the negotiations have not yet been completed," according to the official statement of the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations.
In government circles in Aruba and Sint Maarten, the finger of blame is pointed at Curaçao. The Pisas cabinet would be obstructive because it also wants the cut on the salaries of ministers and parliamentarians off the table. One of the conditions of the Netherlands is precisely that the wage intervention for high earners in the public or semi-public sector is maintained for the time being. The Hague also does not want the reversal of the procedure to be paid for with money from the Netherlands.
Aruba and Sint Maarten are not happy with the conditions, but have resigned themselves to them because the pressure from the unions of government employees is great. This is also the case in Curaçao, but there it is realized that the recovery of civil servants' salaries is not possible if no money from the Netherlands can be used for this.
The cancellation of the RMR means that Aruba and Sint Maarten also have to wait to repair the wages of government employees. There is therefore little appreciation for the attitude of Curaçao.