Justice Minister Rafael Boasman’s public condemning of a local business for hiring illegal employees earlier this week caused quite a stir. The establishment reacted with a statement denying the charges (see Friday paper) and calling the Minister’s outburst as well as the raid in the Maho area that led to it bad for tourism.
Speaking at Wednesday’s Council of Ministers press briefing, Boasman had reminded everyone that he was from the labour sector. He mentioned the International Labour Organisation (ILO) “name and shame” tactic and applied it to a rooftop club where five supposedly undocumented workers had been detained.
However, according to the owner personnel were hired via a local employment agency and all had been in order. The claim that no taxes and health insurance were paid for them was also rejected.
The owner said the matter had meanwhile been cleared up. However, some of the foreign workers apparently still opted to return to their homeland out of frustration and embarrassment.
If the employees were indeed legal, it’s not entirely clear why they were unable to initially demonstrate such to the Immigration control team. Perhaps that is something authorities can look into further with the company and its employment agency.
By the way, the impression should not be created that employment agencies don’t have rules and regulations. In any case legitimate ones operate under existing laws, as Health, Social Development and Labour Minister Emil Lee recently explained in Parliament.
The “name and shame” strategy can indeed be a useful tool, but it’s imperative to know for sure that what someone is being accused of is actually true. Otherwise, it can easily become a “shame without blame” situation.
