BELIZE CITY, Thurs. May 7, 2020– Financial Secretary Joseph Waight has written a response to a letter that the unions had addressed to Prime Minister Dean Barrow on the matter of salaries and increments. In the letter, Waight made reference to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on government finances, saying: “I remind you of the extremity of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis and the collapse of public finances.”

The unions were basically told that they have until tomorrow, Friday, May 8, to respond favorably to government’s offer — which involves a freeze on public service wages and increments.

Amandala has been reliably informed that the Public Service Union (PSU) held a meeting last night and has decided to reject government’s offer. The union is expected to issue a press release later today.

The PSU, our source informed us, has decided to stick to their proposal to defer increments and allowances for a three-to-five-year period, following which the economic picture should look better in the post-COVID-19 pandemic world.

The PSU is of the view that their proposal for a 3-to-5 year deferral of increments is a much better option, because the government is proposing to take away increments and not reinstitute them.

In a telephone interview with Amandala this morning, the National President of the Belize Teachers Union, Hon. Senator Elena Smith, confirmed that they will be meeting with the PSU to issue a joint statement.

Senator Smith said, “We are in agreement with deferral. We have to look at the other side of that, whether it’s going to be what they are saying, at the time of retirement, or the 3-to-5 years that we had proposed.”

Apart from telling the unions that they have to respond in two days, the letter from the Financial Secretary is forcefully indicating to the unions that their response should be to accept government’s proposal, otherwise, the Prime Minister will approach the Governor General to amend the Public Service Regulations.

Here is how Waight puts it: “If the PSU rejects the proposals, please be informed that the Minister intends to proceed as follows: he will seek, after hearing from you, to advise His Excellency the Governor General to amend the Public Service Regulations so as to give the Minister the power to alter salaries, emoluments and increments in order to deal with the current unprecedented situation.”

We asked Senator Smith to respond to that statement.

“It seems that they are issuing a threat to us, the unions. We either accept it, or else. We don’t take threats lightly,” said Senator Smith.

Senator Smith added, “It is a matter that we will be discussing to see how we proceed further.”

We asked Senator Smith if the unions would be formulating a position in the eventuality that the Prime Minister does go ahead and amend the laws.

Senator Smith said that the unions have to prepare themselves for whatever happens – “whether they accept our proposals, or we can’t see eye-to-eye and they amend the laws. So that will be what we will be discussing as we go forward”, she said.

Waight’s letter to the unions caught the attention of the Opposition People’s United Party, which issued a press release today declaring, “The People’s United Party condemns, in the strongest possible terms, the Barrow administration’s arrogant, disrespectful letter of ultimatum to the Public Service Union (PSU). We believe that such a letter has no place in a democratic society where workers are seen as important and equal partners in development and governance.”

The PUP release went on to express solidarity with the union and to ask government to come clean and identify the politically appointed contract officers and how much they are worth in terms of the value of their contracts.

The release questioned why the government is broke after accessing $500 million from the Petrocaribe funds and $600 million from oil revenues and hundreds of millions through foreign loans.

“The PUP also vehemently condemns the not-so-veiled threat from the Prime Minister to circumvent the National Assembly and seek to have the Governor General amend the Public Service Regulations under the State of Emergency, to give the Prime Minister (PM) the power to alter salaries, emoluments, and increments,” stated the release.
The Opposition said, “This is an unnecessary and outrageous abuse of authority which must be resoundingly rejected by all right-thinking Belizeans.”

Feature photo: (l-r) Senator Elena Smith and Fin. Sec. Joseph Waight