It was all the buzz on the morning shows this week when news came out that the 11 truancy officers from the Belize City officers all open vote workers had been given letters of termination. Most of those officers were given their jobs by former Education Minister Cordel Hyde and were his constituents. Now they are jobless, and today the Lake I Representative told the National Assembly it's a tragedy, but typical of the administration.
Cordel Hyde,
"20 persons from the Truancy Department lost their jobs this past week. These persons hardly make $200 s week. Together they used to put over 500 children back into school each year but they had to lose their jobs because we're in the middle of what they call a special period. The reduction in contract officers has started and 66 persons who were employed as open vote workers in the Lake Independence and Albert constituencies have been retrenched over the last 5 months. Many of these persons were making less than a $150 week. 200 more open vote workers are set to be going home soon. The strategy, it appears, is to stagger the firings so it doesn't seem like the retrenchment exercise of 1995."
