Educational staff Caribbean Netherlands receive Employee Handbook

In the past few weeks representatives of OCW in the Caribbean Netherlands have presented the first printed Employee Handbooks to the school boards on St. Eustatius, Saba and Bonaire. Meanwhile, the teachers have also received a copy of this handbook.

The Employee Handbook is meant for the educational staff employed by a school for public or special needs education financed by the Central Government on Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba. The educational staff include the principal, the deputy principal, the teachers and the educational support staff. The objective of the handbook is to make clear what terms and conditions of employment are applicable to the educational staff and to stimulate that agreements regarding the terms and conditions of employment for the schools are implemented correctly.

The handbook however does not provide detailed information about the application of the terms and conditions of employment in specific situations. Questions could always arise about the specific application of an arrangement in a particular situation. Additional questions to OCW in the Caribbean Netherlands can be raised via the email address: ocw@rijksdienstcn.com.

The legal position of the educational staff is a fairly complicated matter, as terms and conditions of employment were established in. multiple settlements. The handbook itself does not provide a binding scheme but merely an explanation about the rights and obligations as laid down in the legislation and regulations, like remuneration, allowances and types of leave. An overview of the most important schemes is included in the appendix of the handbook. These schemes are public and can be consulted by anyone on the internet (wetten.overheid.nl).

A PDF version of the Employee Handbook can be downloaded from the website of RCN/OCW: www.rijksdienstcn.com under Education, Culture & Science/ Educational Staff / Employee Handbook.

The realisation of the Employee Handbook is one of the actions from the educational agenda for the Caribbean Netherlands for the years 2017 up to and including 2020. The educational agenda contains actionpoints that focus on the further improvement of the quality of the education. In this respect, attention is also paid to a number of preconditions, e.g. in the area of terms and conditions of employment.

The underlying agreements were concluded in the Consultation Aimed at Agreement (OOGO, Op Overeenstemming Gericht Overleg). This is a dialogue between the school boards, the trade unions and the island governments.

RCN.