Guide to Doing Business
in St. Maarten
Maximum working hours
Employees who earn less than a nationally stipulated gross salary per year (determined by national ordinance), fall under the scope of the Labor Regulation, which means that they may not work more hours than the statutory maximum working hours. In the event an employee’s salary exceeds the nationally stipulated gross salary per year, the employee could be considered an ‘exempt employee’, which means the employee is, in principle, not entitled to overtime payment, unless otherwise agreed between parties. If however the Labor Regulation is applicable, an employee is entitled to overtime payment if, amongst others, the employee works during his break or if the employee works longer than the maximum working hours.
The Labor Regulation makes a distinction between schedule workers and non-schedule workers. Schedule workers are employees who work in accordance with a recurrent schedule (timetable) outside of regular office hours.
Employer and employee may agree in writing that instead of paying out the overtime in money, the overtime shall be compensated completely or partially in days off (time-back).
Non-compliance with the Labor Regulation can result in imprisonment (for a maximum period of four years) and/ or a fine (for a maximum of NAF 100,000.00), depending on which provision(s) has/have not been complied with.