And while they may have agreed to the promissory notes, they are rejecting the other compensation proposals offered to them - many of which, they explained, were already promised in the PUP's Plan Belize manifesto and could not count as compensation for a pay cut.
But one of those proposals included a shorter work week that, according to the government, would be equivalent offset to the 10% of their salary that would be cut.
However, PSU president Gerald Henry explained that he was the one who brought that offer to the table - not as compensation but rather simply as a form of relief.
Gerald Henry, President, PSU
"I was the one who put forward this proposal to the government from early on in the year as a possible cost saving measure, reason being that I did extensive study along with a fellow public officer of mine who works in the ministry that deals with energy and so on. After receiving information from the ministry of finance that had to do with utility bills and so on, I think I got 5 years' worth of utility bills from the ministry of finance and an analysis was done by that officer and he determine that there were significant savings to be had from reducing the work week by one hour, in particular the firts hour of the day which would be 8-9 and that was what triggered me to then submit that proposal to the government even before we started with these negotiations or discussions or whatever the term that they want to use and so I did not feel as though it should have been an issue that should have fallen under a compensation."
