In a letter dated April 6th, the Executive Council of Bonaire asked the Minister of Interior and Kingdom Relations to appoint April 30th, Dia di Rincon, as official day off.
The Labor Act 2000 BES is the starting point when determining the official public holidays. Since 2015, the government in the Netherlands has indicated that it wishes to cooperate to make Dia di Rincon a public holiday. The Executive Council should indicate how they intend to do this: exchange an official holiday, celebrate Dia di Rincon on an existing holiday or create an extra official holiday.
To create an extra holiday, it is necessary that the support is assured of (representatives of) employers and employees on Bonaire. The press release of April 15th 2018 by BBE, BHG, the Bonaire Chamber of Commerce and USIBO shows that this is not yet the case.
However, the Executive Council may decide that the day off after the Carnival parade is exchanged for another day off. In this way ‘Carnival Monday’ can be traded in as a public holiday for Dia di Rincon. This is a relatively simple solution, which also has the support of the representatives of employers and employees on Bonaire. The initiative for this is explicitly with the Executive Council of Bonaire. This has already been pointed out in letters in 2015, 2016 and 2017 by the State Secretary of SZW and the then Minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations. This has not led to a decision so far.
The State Secretary for SZW has repeated the earlier appeal to the Executive Council to make a decision, because she notices that there is still uncertainty and unrest in the society of Bonaire about Dia di Rincon.
Without a decision of the xecutive Council it is not possible to make Dia di Rincon a public holiday.