It isn’t hidden from anyone: the bare facts behind the present standoff between public employees, mainly the teachers and public servants, and government. While our economy has grown since the pandemic – our debt-to-GDP ratio has been cut by half, and the minimum wage was upped from $3.30 to $5.00 per hour; our citrus and farmed shrimp industries are still struggling, it is not the best of times for the sugarcane industry in the north, and cruel inflation has robbed our dollar of some of its value, in some instances by up to 30%.
Belizeans all over are feeling the pinch. Teachers and public servants have been agitating for some time now for an increase of their salaries and the restoration of a few increments that they gave up to help get us through the difficult months of the pandemic. But they, the majority, understand the internal and external forces that are pressing down on our economy; so, while they kept their demands on the table before our political leaders, they refrained from any kind of industrial action. And then our political leaders gave government’s top employees a big, fat raise.
As sums go, the salary increase for the government’s top employees doesn’t amount to that much, because there are few of them. No one questions rewarding talent—natural gifts or diligence, or a combination of the two; it’s mostly a matter of how much one can afford. The Cabinet did the math and found that the salary increase for its top execs was well within our means. But the Cabinet somehow missed how fattening the salaries of the Cabinet Secretary and the CEOs would appear in the face of an outstanding debt to its employees on the lower rungs, the majority of whom are living paycheck to paycheck in these inflationary times.
Relative to Belize, the salaries of government’s top employees put them in our upper class. Fascinatingly, our top executives were motivated to demand more from the national treasury because of what they see managers of the public utilities and managers in the private sector making. It’s the rat race, a disease not many are immune to. Very often it is unwise to compare ourselves to others. Our top government employees are our upper class, but compared to our highest earners, they are not rich, and compared to the upper class in the wealthy European nations, they are poverty-stricken.
Scott Galloway, a college professor in the US, explained in an interview with MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough, that the economy in America exists to create “a robust middle class”, and declared that the “American middle class is the greatest innovation in history.” Commenting on inequalities in the US, the pressure many households are presently under, Galloway, a wealthy man whose feet are on the ground, put the blame squarely on the overly greedy. Speaking about this group and its modus operandi to corral a nation’s wealth, Galloway said: “throughout history you have a small number of people who weaponize government … they are very talented, they aggregate power … and they aggregate more and more spoils.”
In an environment where the middle class sees its wealth dwindling, usually this group will clamor for change. But in the US, the people recently went to the polls and chose a government that is the choice of the rich, one that cuts the taxes of the wealthy. Explaining the Americans’ choice for leadership, Galloway said “the Achilles heel is that … the bottom 99% who are getting screwed don’t mind the policies because they believe at some point they’re going to be in the 1%.” Innately, Belizeans aren’t different from Americans; but public employees here saw the increase of the wealth of the upper class and their earnings not catching up, and they made a stand.
Based on the budget figures, off the top the government does not have the funds to pay its employees what they are demanding. The Financial Secretary, Joe Waight, has suggested that to meet a higher wage bill, government might have to raise taxes. No one, least of all those in the lower class, wants to hear about increased taxes, because that would translate to an increase of the price of fuel and food, commodities that are already priced exorbitantly high.
The leaders of the government’s employees say it’s scare tactics. They say the national treasury would have the funds to pay them what they justly deserve, have earned, if our leaders stopped bloating contracts for cronies and foreign investors. The suggestion has also been made in some quarters that government could find money by being more vigilant with the taxes collected from businesses, and by restructuring the property tax regime, which in rural areas groups multi-million-dollar homes on the beach with bungalows in villages. In respect to the government’s offer being tied to conditions on performance and pension reform, its employees insist that such conditions shouldn’t be part of the discussion because what they are asking for is what they have already earned.
The protagonists are at an impasse; it’s a difficult situation where both sides are digging in. While we wait to see how the parties reach resolution on this serious salary issue, hopefully, without much loss of time and energy, we all need to recognize the possibilities of the moment in which we live.
While it’s rough financially for the majority, particularly because of inflation, the employment situation has never been so good. Thanks to the BPO industry, there are opportunities for our young graduates; and while it’s mainly stopgap, a career only for the minority, the thousands of individuals who work in that industry have the space to contemplate on and prepare for their futures while earning enough to sustain themselves. While the majority of us could do with better quality food on our tables, few Belizeans are starving, and in this environment we should be able to think our way through to a better Belize.
The masses in Belize are tired of waiting to “win”, and in this ominous cloud we just might find a silver lining. We need to seize this moment. Public employees are concerned about their salaries, and the teachers and public servants are pressing the government. The government isn’t shy of cards to play to give it the wiggle room to get through the next five years. Except for one, these cards will put a dent in the national treasury. As a last resort, government can fall back on the unthinkable: the painful 1997 option.
With the parties at the table, and both courting support from the masses, it is a moment we must use to remedy our main weakness: the lack of transparency and accountability in the system, which is at the root of the inequalities and other deficiencies in our country. We cannot continue to allow our governments to run the country without the necessary checks in the system, which thus far ALL of our governments have managed to dodge.
A transparent and accountable system comes with a cost. In such a system, leaders have to invest more resources in oversight bodies, and in education, and they have to expend energy to explain the rationale for their decisions, just as they had to do to win a yes vote in the ICJ referendum. But the reward is worth the effort. A transparent and accountable system will nip, both in perception and deed, corruption, nepotism, and cronyism, thus freeing Belize to be its best self. This is a moment we can use to create a better Belize.