Photo: Financial Secretary, Joseph Waight
The BNTU says it is giving GoB “fair warning.” The PSU says it will get its members’ mandate if the decision is not rescinded.
BELIZE CITY, Mon. Nov. 27, 2023
A leaked e-mail correspondence from the Financial Secretary, Joseph Waight, to the Cabinet Secretary, Stuart Leslie, dated November 14, has greatly ruffled the feathers of the two largest public sector workers unions: the Belize National Teachers’ Union (BNTU) and the Public Service Union (PSU). The letter confirms that a decision was made to increase the telephone allowance of CEOs, the Financial Secretary, Solicitor General and Cabinet Secretary from $250 to $600 monthly. As a result of the decision, the PSU has even made stringent demands of its own if the Government does not walk back on the allowance increase, set to come into effect when new contracts for CEOs are signed shortly.
The Cabinet Secretary told Amandala on Friday that some CEOs were already receiving a telephone allowance of $600, and this decision is to ensure that the payment is across the board. He also provided the explanation that call roaming is very expensive.
Back in October 2022, the PSU had raised similar concerns about the Briceño Administration’s decision to restore the living and entertainment allowance for CEOs. That allowance had been cut by half from $1,500 to $750 back in May of 2020 when Belize first started feeling the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. When it was restored in September, the payment was made retroactive to July 1, 2022.
With the largest monthly phone plan costing around $250, the decision to more than double the phone allowance for CEOs has elicited “tremendous disdain” from the BNTU, which has taken this opportunity to disclose that the Chief Education Officer on November 3 has indicated that “many teachers have not been paid any allowances since the beginning of the new school year, while others have gone without ANY salary at all for that same time period.” Another concern is that some teachers and public officers have yet to see their increments reinstated. The BNTU accuses school managements and the Ministry of Education of “playing the blame game while our teachers and their families are starving, as the woeful cost of living continues to rise.”
One teacher has explained on social media that some managements are saying that GoB is not sending them the money to pay teachers; while the Government, in turn, is saying that it’s the managements that are not sending in the documents. The teacher said that when one case was investigated, it was determined that the management was at fault for not having sent in the required documentation. The union member questioned, “Can you imagine not getting a salary for THREE months?”
In the face of the increase of telephone allowances for CEOs, which the BNTU deems a gross and unjustified outflow from the nation’s coffers, the BNTU is calling on the Government to address their outstanding concerns. It states, “We will no longer sit quietly while this animal farm continues to play out.” The Union wants the decision about the CEOs’ allowance to be rescinded, and it has declared, “Consider this FAIR WARNING. It has been long coming but the Green Machine is about to ROAR!!!”
Over the weekend, on November 25, the BNTU sent out a memo to its membership asking them to complete a survey by midnight Sunday on the way forward. The results of the survey were to be reviewed today. A special virtual meeting has been scheduled with the membership for Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. where the union’s Council of Management will present its plan of action. It called on members to wear their signature BNTU green T-shirts today “as a sign of solidarity and readiness to act”, and we have seen that some have responded to the call.
On Friday, the PSU in its own release expressed alarm and utter disgust at the decision. It states, “Such an unexplained and unjustified increase in telephone allowance to a chosen few who have consistently been treated with special favors by the PUP Administration is not only unacceptable, but condemned by the Public Service Union of Belize. At a time when Belizeans are struggling with the unbridled high cost of living, coupled with Public Officers being cornered into a Contributory Pension Reform whilst they remain out of pocket from a frozen increment, is a slap in the face of the Belizean public and especially Public Officers, who are responsible for the running of the Public Service.” The PSU is asking that the approval of the increase in telephone allowance is rescinded within 21 days, and that if this does not happen, that the PUP Administration announces the granting of a double increment to public officers effective April 1, 2024. The union says this would amount to the restoration of the 2021/2022 frozen increments that is due to public officers. The PSU is also calling for Fixed Salary/Open Vote Employees to get a 5% increase in salary, and that the names of price gouging businesses be disclosed within 21 days. Likewise, it calls for the publication of the names of businesses which continue to be in arrears for their tax obligations. The PSU warns: “Failure to fulfill the above will leave the PSU with no other option but to seek a mandate from its general membership for industrial actions.”
In a press release on Saturday, the National Trade Union Congress of Belize (NTUCB) joined in the condemnation of the Government’s decision, calling it an unjustified approval for the bourgeoisie which must be rescinded. The Congress says it’s a “slap in the face to Public Officers, Teachers, Doctors, Nurses, Police and other Security Forces, the marginalized struggling working class and every taxpayer. The spirit of ‘Todos Ganamos’ truly means ‘Todos Pagamos’; while unu full unu packet and unu belly, everybody else fu pay and lose.”
Minister of Education, Hon. Francis Fonseca has committed to giving an interview but not until later in the week.