We've been reporting on the dispute between the Barrow Government and the Public Service Union.
In the wake of the global COVID-19 pandemic, Belize's economy, like the rest of the world, has taken a massive hit due to the shutdown of the tourism industry, and the State of Emergency, which mandated the closure of all businesses for weeks.
The government's revenue base from taxes are way down, and the monthly wage bill for all public servants is around 45 million dollars. Because of that, Government is asking those public officers to forego their increments for this year. The PSU wants it to be deferred - which means pay them later.
The two sides agreed to talk it out, and we are informed that the Prime Minister and several other government officials participated in a zoom teleconference meeting today with representatives from the PSU, the Belize National Teachers Union, and the Association of Public Service Senior Managers.
Word coming out of those talks this evening is that the Government and the public servants have found common ground on what the cost-saving measures should be. This evening, we got a chance to speak via telephone with the 1st Vice President of the PSU, and he told us that he was not able to share details of the proposed agreement at this time. Here's what he had to say about the tone of the meeting generally:
Dean Flowers, 1st VP, PSU
"With regards to the specifics of the meeting as was agreed in the meeting I wouldn't be able to comment on those at this moment. We are awaiting for a final draft on the agreement reached today from the financial secretary and so once we receive that information and I'm pretty sure that we will be able to make it public once it is finalized and then I'll be able to comment on the details, but what I can say is that this morning we did meet with the PM and his team, it was an extremely cordial meeting and it was very robust in discussions and an excellent decorum was maintained at all times and I am pleased to say that at the end of the discussion I trust that all parties were able to leave the room satisfied with an amicable solution to the proposals that were on the table. The Prime Minister will be holding a press conference as has been announced and the framework on which we have agreed will be shared with the general public by the Prime Minister. I trust that by that time as well we may have an official document from the Ministry of Finance by which we can speak on and then I would be in a better position to entertain questions as ir relates to the details of that agreement."
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