NAPB President Marcus Pantophlet.
PHILIPSBURG--The NAPB police union on Thursday expressed concern that justice workers remain without adequate insurance coverage and are still experiencing delays in the processing of their landsbesluiten (national decrees) LBs.
In his first appearance in Parliament as NAPB President, a visibly nervous Marcus Pantophlet told the Justice Committee that insurance remains one of the most urgent challenges facing justice workers. He recalled that in May 2025, when there was a riot at the prison, police officers had to intervene to restore order while not being properly insured. Pantophlet explained that although the Minister of Justice responded by referencing “smartengeld,” (damages) that was not the issue at hand. “What I meant was the insurance that justice members had been paying into, but which lapsed since 2023,” he said.
NAPB Treasurer Janice Philips supported his statements, stressing that members had been contributing to insurance fees since 2022. Philips said that although members paid insurance fees starting in 2022, coverage stopped in 2023 when deductions ceased under the national decree.
She explained that although a 2024 covenant stipulated through the CCSU that “smartengeld” would include insurance, this has not materialised. The union, she said, has repeatedly raised the issue but has yet to receive clear answers.
“This insurance policy was not something that just appeared. There was a bidding process between three insurers, and NAGICO won. The coverage was valid for 400,000 guilders, which included disability coverage, life insurance, and a death benefit. What was good about the policy was that when you reached the age of 60, you could remain with the insurance until you decided to stop or continue with it,” Philips explained.
She said four officers had benefited from the policy, and their families had expressed gratitude for the coverage they received. “Now, in the rechtspositie [legal position – Ed.], they are talking about smartengeld, but in CCSU all unions agreed to revisit smartengeld. What is smartengeld? Nobody knows. Our officers are risking their lives and we had over 550 employees covered before. Our question is: when will this insurance be finalised? Every day out there is not easy, and the members gave us the mandate to ask this question,” she said.
Union representative Grace Scot explained that two insurance policies had originally been in place: NAGICO and Boogaard. NAGICO had proposed enhanced coverage, including 100% payout for any death and 200% if death occurred on the job, but the cost of 45 guilders per person was deemed too high for government. The final arrangement had employees paying 20 guilders and the government 25. The insurance was introduced after it became clear that families of deceased officers were not being adequately supported and were often left without the income of the head of the household.
Pantophlet also highlighted serious delays in the issuance of landsbesluiten. “I have been contacted on many occasions about the national decrees. The question keeps coming back: why is it taking so long? Why do we have to wait so long, and why does one person get theirs before another?” he told MPs adding that members have been saying “I want my LB. I want my LB.”
Philips echoed the concern, pointing out that LBs were supposed to have been finalised after publication in the National Gazette in 2024. “When you sign a document, you are supposed to do it legally correct. Our members are frustrated with what is happening with these LBs. How is it possible that batch 14 took eight months to get off the ground? How is it possible that nobody is dialoguing with the union?” she asked.
She warned that the delays are leaving justice workers demotivated and mentally stressed. “We are only here to ask. We want answers ourselves to know when all of this is going to get rectified,” Philips said.
Windward Islands Civil Servants Union/Private Sector Union (WICSU/PSU) President Sharon Cangieter who assisted NAPB in proving answers to questions posed by MPs, explained that the Committee for Civil Servants Union (CCSU) had agreed the government would be responsible for adequate insurance coverage, with 100% coverage for justice workers. “An agreement was made in CCSU at the time that it was being discussed with the rechtspositie and all of the other documents that were submitted for approval and because that was not quite clear at the time we [the unions] indicated that the government of St. Maarten will be responsible for executing adequate insurance coverage which provides the justice workers with police tasks with 100% in smartengeld. The CCSU reserves the right to revisit and resolve this point within three years of the execution of this addendum as it relates to such coverage for administrative workers within high risk and dangerous environments, who may inadvertently be placed at risk on a daily basis in the execution of their tasks given close proximity of executed police tasks,” stated Cangieter.
“From my understanding, all members of the Justice Ministry are covered with that insurance,” she said, while clarifying that the NAGICO insurance was separate from smartengeld.
Cangieter said also that not all workers are satisfied with the current handling of LBs. “The majority are not. There are a few who are just curious to see the status of the landsbesluiten and are okay with seeing their draft landsbesluit. But most are not satisfied,” she said.
