WILLEMSTAD – More than 15 Curaçao civil servants will take the government to civil court on October 6, arguing that the Country of Curaçao has failed to comply with earlier rulings issued by the civil service court.
The employees are asking the Court of First Instance to impose penalty payments on the government in an effort to force it to carry out decisions it was already ordered to make.
The summary proceedings will be heard jointly starting at 10:15 a.m.
In most of the cases, a government ministry was previously ordered by the Court in Civil Service Matters to issue a decision concerning an employee's legal position. According to the cases now before the civil court, those decisions have still not been taken.
The problem is not new. The Court itself has acknowledged that civil servants who successfully challenge government decisions face an additional obstacle when the administration subsequently fails to comply with a judgment.
Under Curaçao's civil service procedural rules, the civil service court itself cannot immediately attach a penalty payment to its ruling to force the government to act.
As a result, civil servants must initiate separate proceedings before the civil court to seek a penalty payment.
Members of the Joint Court of Justice have previously described this as a now “tried-and-tested route” when government authorities fail to implement judgments.
One example involved a Curaçao police officer who requested promotion to team leader in early 2021. After the ministry failed to respond, the civil service court ordered the minister in 2022 to make a decision.
When the government still failed to act, the officer went to the civil court in 2023 seeking enforcement through a penalty payment.
The civil judge eventually ordered the Country of Curaçao to comply, subject to penalty payments up to a maximum of XCG 25,000.
Case law has established that the civil court can provide this additional form of legal protection precisely because the civil service court does not have the same enforcement mechanism.
The Court has previously held that civil servants cannot reasonably be expected to accept a situation in which the government simply disregards a judicial ruling.
The more than 15 cases scheduled for October 6 will initially be considered together. Cases involving specific individual circumstances may subsequently be dealt with separately.