Earlier this week, 7NEWS received an email alerting us about possible mass firings at BAHA, the Belize Agricultural Health Authority, a quasi government department. The situation as reported to us is that the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries Rene Montero instructed BAHA’s Managing Director to issue termination letters to a number of BAHA’s employees. The story is that Sanz refused to follow orders. Since then, we have been unable to determine whether or not Managing Director Neri Sanz has indeed tendered her resignation as is rumoured. Sanz told us that she cannot comment at this time. But the outspoken President of the Public Service Union Jacqueline Willoughby can – and she did today. Willoughby presented the union’s position on the issue and many others. She describes what has been unfolding as political interference which she says cannot be allowed to continue.
Jacqueline Willoughby, PSU President
“What is happening at BAHA is the Minister has asked for certain people to be fired and certain people to be dismissed. We know for a fact the managing director refuses to do that and as a result, well if she hasn’t tendered her resignation, the way her contract is written it would have called for her to resign. Where the Public Service Union is concerned, we represent a lot of the workers at BAHA so we will call on the Minister to stop interfering; there is a process.
If these people had done something wrong then I say let’s go through the disciplinary process but the union must be involved. If we continue to have this type of political interference what will happen is that it will erode industrial relations and you have heard the Minister on the 23rd of June and in a press release that they did earlier this year, that they have discussed with the unions and they want to maintain good industrial relations. Well this kind of action will not maintain that.
So far it has just been threats and as I said, I know they were pushing the managing director to sign the letters. She boldly refused to sign those letters. So up to now, no reports have come with people actually fired but I have seen documents where the Minister has requested that certain people go.
We cannot accept that the Minister will just determine all on his own, for whatever reason, that people should just go like that. There is a procedure to follow and we are urging them to follow that procedure.”
But it is not only the possible termination of BAHA employees that is the only concern of the PSU. Willoughby also spoke out against the dismissal of open vote workers and just as she gave a stern warning to Minister Rene Montero she was just as forceful to the Minister of Finance Prime Minister Dean Barrow asking him to remember what his government promised they would do if elected.
Jacqueline Willoughby,
“Let’s put it out there plain and straight: open vote workers can go home because of their temporary nature however I find it unreasonable for you to just pick up people who were performing and actually send them home. I am not so sure if this is in relation to the Prime Minister’s statement about collateral damage. But if that is in relation to his statement, we want to urge him as well to reconsider that position. These are perilous times, cost a living is all the way over the roof. The whole reason that they want, whether or not people are PUP, whether or not people are performing, they voted for them. In their manifesto they said they would legislate for all human beings. They said everybody would eat.
Two weeks after elections, the Prime Minister gave a speech that said everybody would eat. What is the difference now? Why must some people stop eating? Yes they are open vote workers but we are saying if they are genuine causes to send them home then send them home on those causes and do nor even infer the issue of redundancy because one can never be redundant if by the time you give me a letter to go home, someone is there to replace me. That can never be seen as redundancy.
This week I was doing tours in Belmopan and I learnt from some Ministries that I was going that Ministers were actually asking AOs and other people to research on people. I have seen letters where we are employing people who are not qualified for the post. What happened to the good old matriculation process? People matriculate into posts. Is it now that just because elections have gone, so as to satisfy those who we believe have supported us, is this the route we’re going to take now or is that the government no longer cares about maintaining industrial relations with us?
In addition to that, let’s not forget on the 23rd of June we had a commitment, a national commitment on TV on Public Service Day that the Minister has said he is intent on putting back morale in the public service. Would you view this action as putting back morale in the public service? Mind you I must clarify, the reason why I’ve addressed the Prime Minister in this situation is because open vote workers is the responsibility of the Ministry of Finance and not the Ministry of Public Service however they come from the same government so we’re expecting the same treatment across the board.”
Willoughby says presently the PSU is getting the necessary data that will tell them just how many open vote workers have been fired. For its part the government says firings have been made where some open vote workers were being paid to do nothing.
