On November fifth, The Public Service Union served the Ministry of Labour with a notice of a Trade Dispute with the Government of Belize. It arises from those public officers who work at Belize Tax Services and are facing a transition to the planned Semi Autonomous Revenue Authority - known as SARA, which will not be a government body.
The Minister of Labour had 21 days to respond and today the new Minister Kareem Musa did so with a cavalier letter that has incensed the union. In his brief letter dated yesterday, he said quote, "the proposed transition of the Belize Tax Service Department to a Semi-Autonomous Revenue Authority (SARA) has not been implemented. Accordingly, there is no trade dispute currently." End quote, and end of story.
But not so for the PSU which thundered back with a response today saying, quote, "the PSU must express its profound disappointment and strong objection to the characterization of our formally reported Trade Dispute as an "alleged trade dispute'….Your assertion that "there is no trade dispute currently" because the transition "has not been implemented" demonstrates a fundamental and troubling misinterpretation of the definition of a "trade dispute". End quote.
Here's what Flowers he had to say about it today when he spoke the Media via Zoom:
Dean Flowers, President of PSU
"The current situation as it relates to our notice for trade dispute to the minister is that we would have received a response from him yesterday which leaves a whole lot to be desired as it relates to the legislation that is in place that governs trade disputes. And so given his response we were forced to respond to him of course and to make clear to him that it is not within the confines of his authority to dictate to the public service union as to whether or not a trade dispute exists or not. I don't know who would have advised the minister but it is really disappointing to read his response and I would even go as far as classifying it as bordering disrespectful. Disrespectful because if the people of Belize are paying you a salary perhaps a package worth 130 or 150k the least they would expect is that you do the job or learn how to do your job or you would do the job that you are being paid to do. And when coming out the gate this is the kind of less than intelligent response that I would receive from the minister and I am trying my best not to be rude considering he is new in the post. But as I stated nobody forces them to take up these portfolios."
