So, while the Belize National Teachers Union and the Public Service Union are already making internal moves to prepare for industrial action, the Nurses Association of Belize is announcing publicly, that they are prepared to join them in protest.
In a press release sent today, the Nurses Association says that in a recent survey that was done with its membership, the clear and consistent message is that they are rejecting salary cuts from the Government of Belize. But more than that, the Nurses say that they are aligning with the Joint Unions in a fight for good governance. They says that it is past time that the government moves to expedite the full implementation of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption - UNCAC.
Through the survey done by the Association, 99% of the respondents are against the salary cut.
Their press release says, quote, "Nurses have sacrificed a lot over the years and more so through the last 15 months, some working up to 60+ hours of overtime and not being paid. We have sacrificed our lives and the lives of our family with not as much as a word of thanks from the government." End quote.
94.5 of the respondents are ready to stand against the government if the cuts are instituted as proposed, and the laws to stop wasteful spending, as well as UNCAC, are not enacted.
60% of the survey respondents support the increment freeze only, and over 80% are in support of it for only a maximum of 2 years.
Their press release adds, quote, "..a salary cut is counterproductive to the maintenance of stability in the nursing households. As is, nurses have to work more than the standardized 40 hours per week, how does the government intend to compensate for the additional hours of overtime that will need to be paid given that work hours are going to be decreased as a result of the salary cut?" End quote.
This afternoon, the President of the Nurses Association granted us an interview via teleconference, and here's what he had to say on the mandate from his members:
Darrell Spencer - President, Nurses Association of Belize
"The Nurses Association of Belize wants to align itself with all the united associations in this industrial action, but it's not just the salary cut. Like I've said earlier, a salary cut on its own will not fix the problem. The salary cut is basically the straw that is breaking the camel's back."
"They feel as strongly as they do because they are Belizeans. They live here in Belize. I know for a fact that 100% of Belizean nurses can be absorbed into foreign markets. That's a fact. Belizean nurses working in this country have it twice as hard because everything is going up, and now, they're saying that the salaries are going to come down. Belizean nurses are very educated. They are realizing now that the way forward for the country is not merely a salary cut. It is not the ultimate solution. Our ministers need to be held responsible. Our ministers need to prioritize their spending of the government purse. Our ministers need to be held responsible for mismanagement. All these things, the nurses are now living. Remember for the last year-plus, we've been going through tight corners providing schedules of services to the Ministry and the people of Belize. And for Prime Minister to say that we have sacrificed nothing is nothing more than an insult to what we have been doing."
"Prior to COVID-19, we have had departments in the hospitals all over this country where if 40 to 50 hours of overtime aren't being worked, there is simply no way to cover the department. You cannot pick up a nurse off the street, and say, okay miss, come and do nursing."
"We have nurses, doctors, allied health who have worked overtime and haven't been paid since last year. They still have outstanding over time. We cannot continue without using overtime. That is a fact."
"Nurses have been sacrificing to cover now additional departments in the hospital, where it comes to COVID-19 and infectious diseases. So, we've stretched an already thin staff to another department, to help with the public, to help with this COVID-19."
At the end of their press release, the nurses list a series of recommendations that they think will help to clean up public spending. They think that the government should cut quote, "exuberant allowances of Ministers and Senior Executives"; stop with the unnecessary hiring of new public officers and the creation of unnecessary posts.among other measures.
We asked the President of the Nurses Association to elaborate on a few of these recommendations - slash - demands:
Darrell Spencer - President, Nurses Association of Belize
"Imagine, I pay you to live in the house that you own. I give you a housing allowance. A housing allowance is given to public officers when they must work away from their homes. So, the allowance was intended for you to take up residence in another district where you would be working. All our ministers, their executives, and their CEOs get these allowances, but they work from home. Then furthermore, we give them a vehicle, a driver, and unlimited gasoline, to do what? To come from the house we're paying for, to go to an office that we're paying for, to do the job that you're being paid for, with fuel that we're paying for. So, all these allowances - now, if you're getting a housing allowance and you're getting a fuel allowance from your normal residence, those allowances shouldn't even exist."
"Allowances were instituted to help the public officer to offset the burdens that they would pick up, not to make a profit. We say that we don't have money right now, but the government is spending $3,000 - $4,000 per public officer being transferred across this country right now, transferred for ridiculous reasons, just because your supervisor doesn't like you, just because you're a UDP affiliate, it's just because of being a public officer that you're transferred. There is no benefit that the people get from these transfers, so why pick up a bill for it. Why are they transferring public officers in a time like this? You're saying that we don't have money. Everything is going up. You're advising a salary cut. What is it that you want, for all the public officers to start mass resignations? Because, to me, that is the only point of these ridiculous transfers, to frustrate public officers to resign, which is shameful."
The Nurses Association concludes its press release by saying, quote, "Successive Governments have only bestowed pain and suffering upon this nation through reckless borrowing, spending, and pillaging of the people's resources; it stops now." End quote.
