And while Belize is juggling a possible default by a string in the international markets, back at home they are still negotiating with the unions on that pay cut.
Earlier we told you that the unions went into a meeting with the government at 1:30 this afternoon with a list of demands that they hope can be met. And one of those recommendations put forward was that government ministers give up their allowances. But what about the allowances that the senior managers in the APSSM get?
We asked the president, Sharon Frazer, and she said there was no comparison between the two since the APSSM's allowances are actually earned after years of working.
Sharon Frazer, President, APSSM
"We were very cautious in terms of going after allowances because it is not just senior managers that get allowance, you have public officers as well who are getting allowances on where they are, depending on what offices they're working in and if you're starting to go after allowances, you're talking about people who would be giving up - in my case, a lot of HOD's are talking about thirty years of service, at last twenty five plus years of service who would have been working towards getting those allowance, compare to ministers who come in and the least they would serve is a five year term and they end up with all these allowances that it would have taken us years to get to. In addition to that some of the allowances we get is actually to assist in doing our jobs as public officers and serving the general public. So if it is you have a public officer for example that's getting a commuting allowance for example, that is to ensure the officer is able to get from wherever he or she is to work to serve the public. So it is not free money, it is to assist and in some cases the very same public officers still have to supplement the government to get the work done. For example there is a subsistence allowance. For example if I have to go to San Pedro to work, it is fifty dollars, there is no way for a whole day that one would be able to survive on fifty dollars in San Pedro, think about the cost of living in San Pedro, so immediately that mean one have to supplement government in getting government's work done. So to me it's no comparison when you look at allowances that public officers including the senior managers get compared to the allowances that government ministers get. But I have to say that while my colleagues at the joint table are asking for the removal of all allowances for ministers that was necessarily my position."
