While we had the opportunity to speak with the Labour Minister, we asked him about the severance benefits for the employees of Fruta Bomba. That's the foreign owned Papaya producing company, located near San Joaquin, Corozal, which has been winding down operations in Belize after 22 years of doing business in this country.
The Guardian Newspaper reported in their weekend issue that last week was the final 7 days of operations, before they completely closed down.
So, we asked Hugo Patt about his Ministry's involvement in making sure that the 251 former employees of the company have been properly compensated for their years of service. Here's what he told us:
Hon. Hugo Patt - Minister of Labour
"We knew from the onset because of several situations that Fruta Bomba was practically winding down. As a matter of fact I think this is the last weeks that it's going be operational. But from the onset it was mentioned that at the time we knew there were initial talks of winding down. we engaged the company in us being able to preserve the rights for our people and so we look at everything, but more importantly we made it clear that while any company that winds down and is closing down on us, there needs to be that compliance with the law and there needs to be benefits duly given to our employees. And as such we feel very confident that in winding down they have applied the law as is required."
Ivan Williams - Labour Commissioner
"Like I said we've received complaints and we are going to look into it. I cannot give more details than that, because we are professionals, we don't talk about people case in the media."
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