On Tuesday, October 2, Chief Justice Dr. Abdulai Conteh ordered that a new tribunal should be set up within 60 days to look into the dispute between Belize Telemedia Limited (BTL) and three terminated workers – Andy Sutherland, Nelson Young and Enrique Monima – who have been without a job for almost a year now.
The Government announced via a press release on Friday, November 30, that it had appointed a new tribunal to replace the one that was headed by Chief Magistrate Margaret Gabb-McKenzie. The other appointees were Mr. Gilbert Johnson, Mr. Carlos Santos, Mr. Winston Carr (nominated by BCWU) and Mr. Mark Lizarraga (nominated by the Belize Chamber of Commerce and Industry).
The old tribunal members have been replaced by Mr. Edd P. Usher, Mr. Oswald Twist, Mr. David Morales, Mr. Raymond Davis (workers’ representative), and Mr. Jim Scott (employers’ representative).
They have been tasked to look into the termination of three liaison officers of the Belize Communication Workers Union (BCWU) at the end of January 2007.
The union submitted the dispute for Ministerial resolution, and the Minister eventually submitted the matter to arbitration by a 5-member panel headed by Mrs. Gabb-McKenzie. However, the tribunal came upon a string of legal obstacles – primarily challenges initiated in court by BTL – and it failed to get off to a substantive start.
The Chief Justice disbanded the first tribunal and gave the Government 60 days to set up a new one. This morning Paul Perriott, president of the BCWU, told our newspaper that they had not been advised of the new appointees. Their attorney, Antoinette Moore, wrote the Government last Wednesday, indicating that the Chief Justice’s deadline was about to expire.
Perriott said that the Union’s general secretary, Mrs. Christine Perriott, and Moore would continue to appear on the workers’ behalf at the tribunal. Mrs. Perriott, who won a court-ordered reinstatement to BTL after she was terminated in February, resigned her job weeks ago, citing undue pressure from company management on the job.