On Monday we told you about the 10 at-risk youths from the city who through the Youth for the Future Programme were promised jobs at the Chalillo Dam site. But when they showed up to begin work, they were turned back (See Youths Turned Back from Dam Site). The youths claimed it was plain old racial discrimination by Sino-Hydro, the Chinese contractors who are building the dam for BECOL since 3 light skinned youths were hired.
Well, a representative from Sino-Hydro says there was no discrimination, and more importantly Sino-Hydro made no commitment to hire the youths. The company rep says that the arrangement was made through Youth for the Future and the labor office in Cayo. So Sino-Hydro says that when the youths showed up at the dam site on Sunday with their letters of employment, so did 27 other job seekers. The company says it only had 12 available positions and beds and so it chose the most qualified.
The company stresses that race was not a factor and that anyone who wants to work on the site has to be pre-interviewed before they qualify for a job. In any event, the company rep claims that some of the youths blew any shot at a job when they verbally attacked and cursed out the site supervisor who is a female.
There are about 350 people working on the site and Sino-Hydro claims about half of those are Belizeans. Most of their job placement is done through the Labor Department.
