~Institute appeals decision~
PHILIPSBURG--The Court of First Instance has ordered the National Institute for Professional Advancement (NIPA) to pay former director Vernon Richards, a termination settlement of NAf. 280,000.
NIPA has appealed the Court’s dissolution decision and claimed this settlement has not been determined with due consideration of its defences. No date has been set yet for the handling of this appeal, Richards’ attorney Cindy Marica-Henderson said in a press release on Sunday.
In its decision of Thursday January 28, the Court declared the dismissal of Richards on June 8, 2015 by NIPA’s Board null and void. NIPA was also ordered to make the necessary arrangements for Richards’ pension with general pension fund APS within three months of the Court’s decision.
“You must know that NIPA has failed to make the necessary pension arrangements for its employees, despite the fact that the pension premiums were withheld from their salaries. Since 2014, Richards has repeatedly reminded the Board to make the necessary arrangements to organise the employees’ of NIPA their pension. Richards did the necessary inquiries with APS how to arrange the pension for the employees and provided the Board with the information received from APS since 2014,” Marica-Henderson said.
“More than one and a half year further, NIPA failed to make sufficient efforts to have the pension of Richards or the other employees organised. This failure of NIPA’s Board can have detrimental consequences for the pension rights of Richards. It has yet to be established whether there will not be a breach in the pension [pensioenbreuk – Ed] due to the Board’s lack of arranging this matter.”
The attorney said the Court gave NIPA three months to make the necessary arrangements and Richards must receive written and justified reports of the efforts made. A daily penalty of US $500 up to US $150,000 is imposed for failure of NIPA to comply with the court order. NIPA is also to pay Richards legal and court fees. “This means that NIPA has to pay the NAf. 280,000 awarded as termination settlement by judgment of October 21, 2015.”
