Responding today, senior minister and member of the government negotiating team Francis Fonseca tried to strike a conciliatory note. He staked out the government's position on the increase and pension reform:
Francis Fonseca, Minister of Culture
"Let me be very clear Also on on two points, one, we have to keep communicating, and making sure that the Belizean people understand that the government has of Belize has already agreed, to give the 8.5% to the teachers and public officers. So we've already committed to doing that. The issue is, of course, whether it is done in one single payment, one single, raise increase, or if it's done over a period of three years or two years or that sort of thing. That I want people to understand that we have already committed to that. There's no question about that. We have already said, listen, we know that the teachers and public officers deserve an increase. But let's try to do it in as responsible a way as possible. And then the second point has to do with pension reform. There's a lot of misinformation out there about pension reform. What we are talking about is new entrants into the public service. So new people coming into the public service, what we want to do is have a agreed upon start date, say, for example, October of this year when we will see any person who enters the public service after that date will have to contribute to the pension, will be be a part of a contributory pension scheme.Right now we have a non contributory pension scheme, the only country in the Caribbean, and Central America with a non contributory pension scheme. We are the only country along with Guyana that still has the retirement age at 55. You know what the retirement is in Barbados today. It's 67. That's the retirement age in Barbados. So pension reform for new entrants. Now in terms of the existing public officers, there is a proposal on the on the table for specific categories of those officers. And that has to be worked out in consultation with the unions. So for example, you might say, nobody who has been in the public service for more than ten years, will be affected. That sort of thing has to be discussed and negotiated. So I want to be very clear about that, so that people understand the position of the government."
