BELIZE CITY, Thurs. Jan. 29, 2015–Chairman of the Social Security Board (SSB), Doug Singh, today issued a press release which stated that Christian Workers Union (CWU) General Secretary, Floyd Neal, who was appointed by the National Trade Union Congress of Belize (NTUCB) to sit as a representative on the SSB’s Board of Directors on Monday, January 19, is seen as a “conflict of interest” to the Board and Management of SSB because of the fact that Neal is senior representative and principal negotiator for the CWU, which is presently engaged in negotiations with SSB for a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) on behalf of the SSB employees, who fall under the CWU umbrella.

As a result, SSB had asked the NTUCB to “review its selection” of Neal, so as to avoid “dysfunction” on the SSB Board which, according to the release, had occurred while former CWU president, Antonio Gonzalez, had served as a director from 1999 to 2003.

That request, however, has led to a gridlock in terms of the configuration of the Board, which now threatens to hinder the negotiations for the new CBA for the SSB workers, as well as the award and payment of scheduled Key Performance Indicators (KPI) bonuses, which is also presently being discussed between the union and the institution.

The release cited that on January 19, the NTUCB advised the SSB that they had nominated Emily Turner, from the Communication Workers Union of the NTUCB, and Floyd Neal as directors, with Phillip Tate as an alternate director to sit on the SSB Board as union representatives.

The next day, January 20, SSB responded to the union to advise them of the aforementioned conflict of interest.

Three days later, on January 23, the union reportedly replied to SSB, but according to the release, the CWU “effectively ignored SSB’s request for reconsideration”, and instead, said that they “await the appointment of their nominees by the Prime Minister”.

The release went on to note that on January 26, the Legal Advisor for the Ministry of Finance wrote to the NTUCB confirming the appointment of Emily Turner as director, and Phillip Tate as alternate director, but asked the NTUCB to nominate another member to the SSB Board in place of Floyd Neal.

That is when the issue got heated because officials of the NTUCB reportedly told SSB that their appointed directors would not be attending SSB Board meetings until Neal is appointed to the Board.

One of those meetings was scheduled for today, and as such, had to be postponed because the SSB Act requires at least one director from the union to be present to form a quorum.

Singh described the union’s position as “unfortunate”, since the Board is slated to review the proposals for the new CBA for the SSB employees, as well as the previously mentioned KPI bonus payments for those staff members which, the release stated, stand to be “further delayed because of the union’s refusal to send their employees to the meetings”.

Just before press time tonight, Amandala managed to get in contact with NTUCB General Secretary, Rebecca Suazo, who contended that the union believes that if any conflict of interest would arise if Neal is appointed to the Board, then he would be required to recuse himself and have the alternate director sit in his place until the matter is dealt with; therefore, she argued, the reasoning behind the rejection of his appointment is invalid.

Nevertheless, the SSB chairman did note that the Ministry of Finance’s Legal Advisor was the person who pointed out the conflict of interest in appointing Neal to the Board, but at this time, all we know is that the regrettable deadlock has become an obstacle that may further delay the finalization of the SSB CBA, as well as the payment of the employees’ upcoming KPI bonuses, which are normally granted during the month of March.