BEL Labor Dispute Settled

Three weeks ago, the Belize Energy Workers Union sent out an angry release, condemning its own employer, BEL for greed and complaining that the company refused staff a 4% increase while giving management a 2.5% raise. It was strong talk, but seems it was just a bargaining maneuver to get BEL’s management to come to the table. And that’s just what happened last week with intervention from Labor Commissioner, Ivan Williams. Seems everything went well because today the union and management issued a bloodless joint release. It details changes to the collective agreement, specifically that non management staff will receive a 2.5% increase retroactive to June 1, 2006, another 2.5% adjustment effective June 1, 2007, a 2% increase effective June 1, 2008, and a 1% adjustment effective June 1, 2009. That’s a total of 8% staged over three years. %5 of that is due now, but the release does not detail how the retroactive increase will be paid out, and neither side would comment. But for now the bottom line is that the labour dispute is settled, and the collective agreement next comes up for review in 2011.