PHILIPSBURG:--- Minister of VSA Emil Lee has raised concerns over the lack of insufficient controls being conducted by the Inspectorate. The Minister shared his concerns with SMN News for two consecutive weeks saying that labor controls fall under Inspector General Dr. Earl Best. However, the Minister did not say that the department is lacking vehicles and manpower to fully execute their duties.
On Wednesday SMN News contacted Dr. Best by email and requested that he answer a number of questions pertaining to his department especially regarding labor controls.
In an email response from the legal advisor of IVSA on behalf of Dr. Best it has been clearly explained that currently the Labor Inspectorate, unfortunately, avails of limited tools to effectively execute their legal tasks as the applicable legislation does not provide the inspectors with the possibility to issue administrative fines nor with the possibility to take immediate enforcement actions. As a result of this, in case a violation is established, fines can only be imposed via the public prosecutor/police. Once the draft Ordinance on administrative enforcement (Landsververordening bestuurlijke handhaving) will enter into effect, this should change and the efficacy of the labor inspections should increase.
Dr. Best via his legal advisor Dana Kweekel stated that the department consists of 6 FTE positions, however, over the past five years the Ministry is unable to hire a chief labor inspector and a controller. At the moment there are four labor inspectors working at the Inspectorate.
Another point that has been clarified shows that several employees of the Inspectorate are on extended medical leave which is approved by SZV. Something the Inspector General tried to get clarity on but was not successful. The email response clearly states that a number of civil servants working at IVSA are sent overseas for medical treatment quite often and for extended periods. This concern was also brought to the attention of the Minister of VSA Emil Lee, and is known throughout the Ministry of VSA. The Inspectorate said they even asked that the medical condition of some of the employees be re-evaluated but thus far SZV did not attend to the matter.
The Inspectorate was also asked if the department has enough working vehicles and if the vehicles are insured. In the response, it states The Inspectorate has a very old fleet consisting of 6 vehicles that are almost all older than 8-11 years. At this time, only 5 vehicles are operational but face frequent down time and high maintenance costs. The state of the fleet and urgent need for renewal thereof has been addressed within the Ministry and with Facility services for the past 4 years, but to date, this has not resulted in the much needed tangible outcome. Regarding insurance for the vehicles, the Inspectorate said they were told all government vehicles are insured but to date they were not provided with the necessary documents to show that the vehicles are indeed insured.
Below are the questions and answers posed to Dr. Earl Best.
1. How many labor inspectors work in your department?
A. Currently, the labor inspectorate consists of 4 inspectors.
How many labor inspectors does the department need?
A. The formation of the labor inspectorate consists of 6 FTE. For the past 5 years, a chief labor inspector and a controller cannot be hired, mainly due to budget restrictions.
If your department has less, can you explain why there has been a shortage and if there is, if you informed the Minister of this.
A. As stated above, the shortage is mainly the result of budget restrictions, which is known by all VSA minister and (in general) within government.
How many health inspectors work in your department?
A. Currently, the health inspectorate consists of 2 inspectors, including the Inspector General who is also tasked with the management of the entire Inspectorate Department and who also acts as acting chief labor inspector.
How many health inspectors does the department need?
A. The formation of the health inspectorate consists of 2 FTE.
2. How many employees in your department are on A/O (extended sick leave)? Can you say how long these persons are on extended sick leave?
A. Due to privacy reasons, the Inspectorate cannot provide you with specific information about the number of inspectors that are on extended sick leave or that have been found unfit to work full-time due to medical reasons. The Inspectorate can however inform you that it is confronted with several staff members of which SZV has established that they are not able to execute their functions fulltime due to medical reasons for extended periods of time and/or who are sent abroad for medical treatment frequently for an extended period. This, in combination with the fact that the Inspectorate is not staffed in accordance with its formation plan, affects its capability to adequately execute all its legal tasks.
Did you discuss this matter with SZV and the Minister? If not, why not, and if you did what was the outcome of your enquiry?
A. Yes, this matter is well known within the Ministry, P&O and SZV. In some cases, requests for re-evaluation have been submitted, but these have – for unknown reasons – not been executed.
3. Does your department have sufficient manpower to fully execute the duties of the labor inspectorate? If no, how many persons are lacking and can you explain why the positions are not filled.
A. Please be referred to the answers to the questions above.
4. Do you have enough vehicles for your inspectors? Are the vehicles insured? How many vehicles are down? Did you inform the Minister of the vehicle shortage? If yes, what did the Minister do to correct this problem or even better, the working conditions for your department?
A. The Inspectorate has a very old fleet consisting of 6 vehicles that are almost all older than 8-11 years. At this time, only 5 vehicles are operational, but face frequent down time and high maintenance costs. The state of the fleet and urgent need for renewal thereof has been addressed within the Ministry and with Facility services for the past 4 years, but to date this has not resulted in the much needed tangible outcome.
With regard to the insurance status of the vehicles, the Inspectorate has requested to receive a proof of insurance from Facility Services and the insurance broker. In response to these requests, the Inspectorate was informed by Facility services and the insurance broker that all government vehicles are insured but did not receive the requested documents.
5. The Minister said that he made some type of arrangement with SZV for the Inspectorate. Can you confirm this and please also elaborate if the agreement was made in writing and if you have a copy of said agreement? Further, have you made use of the agreement the Minister made with SZV?
A. The Inspectorate is aware that the Minister proposed to have the labor inspectors conduct joint inspections with the SZV inspectors and that, in that context, the director of SZV indicated that during these inspections the labor inspectors could ride along with these SZV inspectors. To the knowledge of the Inspectorate, this agreement is not formalized in a written agreement. Over the past months, there have been only a few joint inspections and – as the work the SZV inspectors perform is time consuming and different from the that of the labor inspectors – it is not always considered to be practical and efficient to perform these joint inspections. As a result of this, the SZV vehicles were used only once or twice during such joint inspections. In addition, it should be noted that the vehicles, who are used by the SZV subsidiary ATS, are labelled ‘SZV’ and that they have not been made available to the labor inspectors when they perform inspections without SZV inspectors present.
