Two sisters who are registered in the Collet electoral division stopped by Amandala newsroom this afternoon to complain that they have received termination letters from their jobs as school wardens. They claim that their termination came about because of their support for Mayor Zenaida Moya at Sunday’s UDP convention at the Belize City Center.
The two young women, who are single mothers of four children each, brought with them their termination letters. The letters are the kind of form letters that once you type one of them on a word processor, all you have to do is use the word processor’s merge feature and the same letter can be addressed to different recipients, only the names are different. That is the case with the two school wardens’ letters. Not only that, but the two letters were stuffed into one envelope addressed to “Shelmadine & Jennifer Nunez.”
The termination letters for Shelmadine Nunez, 30, and Jennifer Nunez, 26, were exactly the same in wording, although the two of them worked in different locations. The letters never gave any reason why the recipients were being fired from their jobs.
The letters state: “I regret to inform you that your services with the Ministry of Education are no longer required and as a result, your employment as school warden is hereby being terminated with effect from 7th October, 2008. GWR 24 (1) refers.”
The letters were signed by Jesus Castillo, who is an Administrative Officer and works in the Ministry of Education in Belmopan.
The sisters told the newspaper that they went to the office on Tuesday, and they were told by Dale Anthony, manager of the Truancy Program, that “Minister Faber told him to write the termination letter.”
But it should not have been a surprise to Education Minister Faber, who supported Deputy Mayor Anthony Michael in Sunday’s mayoral candidacy balloting, that Shelmadine Nunez was supporting Mayor Moya. She claims that she told Faber this from as far back as August, and Faber threatened to fire her then. This incident occurred in his constituency office, located on Antelope Street Extension.
The Nunez sisters said that they had worked hard for Faber in the March elections, and that they had only recently been appointed to their posts as school wardens. Shelmadine got her job on April 1, while Jennifer was hired on July 8.
They told the newspaper that because they were not paid the $50.00 that was promised to them on Sunday for their work at the convention, they were unable to pay their babysitter.
They both think that the Minister of Education was wrong to terminate them, because they say that they should be free to support anyone who they think is deserving of their support.
Shelmadine worked at Queen’s Square Anglican School and Jennifer worked at Ebenezer Primary School on Barrack Road.
(Ed. NOTE: The reporter will pursue an official response to the allegations by the Nunez sisters.)