And switching topics… the Belize City Council is trying to save some cash by implementing a retirement program for employees who are 55 and above. When they came into office in 2018, they noticed that there were several employees over the retirement age. That number has only grown - and will continue to grow - costing them a lot of money in gratuity and severance in the longer run.
So at the start of the program, on July 1st, 21 employees over the age of 60 will be impacted. In August, 22 employees between the ages of 57-59 will be affected as phase 2 commences. Phase three impacts the final ten people who are between ages 55-57.
And while they have been in contact with the Christian Workers Union about their plan - since out of the 53 workers that will be forced to retire 33 are members of the union - the president, Evan Mose Hyde, said they could have at least given them advanced notice.
Voice of: Evan "Mose" Hyde, President, CWU
"The general feeling is that this comes at the worst possible time with the least possible notice available in the case of the phase 1, very limited time to deal with being without employment and if you understand the circumstances the majority of the union members are from sanitation and so we're meeting with them and hearing their concern, this is really terrible news to hear at this point in time."
"The situation here is that we have met with our legal advisor and there is not a legal argument to be mount against the retirement phase but we believe we have a responsibility to make an appeal on behalf of our members to the City Council. We have done so in the meeting we had we indicated that we believe this to be a situation where our members should be given suggestions as to how to mitigate whatever financial considerations the council has, or try to figure out how to give time and space to our members and especially the sanitation workers who worked hard and served the city for some instances for two decades but were unfortunately the victims of privatization so their == is going to have a == of them leaving out. And that a terrible situation while they were compensated == when they removed them to a private body and then reclaimed by the City Council about 6 and a half to seven years ago, the reality is that many of them won't have enough years to get a gratuity."
