Imagine showing up for work every day and not receiving your salary at the end of the month - or at the end of three months, or even six. That's what over 130 teachers across the country have been facing. It's a recurring problem that the BNTU tries to address with the Ministry of Education every year, but despite the president, Nadia Caliz, bringing the issue to the Chief Education Officer in July - so as to avoid this problem come September - the teachers find themselves in the same predicament.
Now these teachers have had to decorate their classrooms - out of their own pocket, of course - while putting food on the table for their families, and ensuring their utilities and other bills are paid. All that while not receiving their salary.
While the BNTU was unable to reach the Minister, since he is out of the country, the president stated she did get in touch with DPM Cordel Hyde, who has been assisting. But Caliz said there was an agreement that no teachers would be removed from the SmartStream service without notice - so it seems someone went back on that agreement. Here's what she explained:
Nadia Caliz, President, BNTU
"On July 22nd, this is the agreement that we had with the Ministry of Education that any teacher that needed to be removed off the system, the managing authority had to write the chief, Chief Gongora, and then she would address that."
"Up to the last time we checked, and this was like a week before pay day, nobody got any notification that they would be removed or anything like that. And so when we learnt on Thursday that a number of our teachers were not paid, we were like taken aback, but why is this so?"
"Did the management submit what they needed to and all of that? But you see, as a responsible organization, we needed to do our own research, and that's very important. Our investigation up to this point has revealed that our 130 plus, because the numbers are still growing, you can't find them any at all in the system."
"So in order for those teachers to come off the system, somebody had to manually go in and remove them. So who gave the order? That is our question. When we had an agreement, who disobeyed the agreement that we made with Minister Fonseca?"
"Because he was in the meeting with us. Now, I want to say this to the Belizean public, this is what you don't know. Somebody is attacking the BNTU, and you're using that system to attack the BNTU."
"Not only are my educators being attacked by not receiving a salary, we are also being attacked. When you remove our teachers off the system, we don't get our dues. We don't get the loans payment. We have teachers calling us right now, Miss Caliz, I got paid. They did not remove my dues payment. They did not remove my loan payment. Can you give me an account number? Some saying, Miss Caliz, they did not remove it and now that I'm hearing people saying it I checked my account and I realize that is so. And I'm sorry, but I've spent the money already. Every month, every month, this has been happening. I want the Belizean public to know, the Prime Minister of this country, the Minister of Education, and the Deputy PM, because he has been helping us, trying his very best to see how they can get their salary, because the PM was out of the country, I'm not sure if he's still out."
"But the BNTU will not take this lightly come October, 2024. If we have to muster, we will muster. But something needs to be done about the current system."
And the reason she calls it an attack is because the names of teachers don't just automatically disappear from the SmartStream service - they have to be manually taken off. So unless someone is deliberately removing names, they can find no other explanation for why teachers working for decades suddenly aren't getting paid.
And two those teachers were at the press conference today to explain their predicament:
Kimberly Lopez, Teacher, All Saints Anglican School
"First of all, I want to say I haven't been paid for five months. I haven't been paid since May. Way before all of this happened, before my license got expired, I was sending in emails to verify how many CPD hours I had."
"I was waiting, waiting. When I finally got, they told me that I only had 32 hours. Now you tell me I've been teaching for years, always doing workshops. How will I only have 32 hours. So I went into the system, found all my documents, like who my colleague said, I went and I dig out on some boxes. I found my certificates. I sent it in, and that's how I ended up getting my hours. I had to be behind them until I finally got my license all the way in July. So until July, I got my license."
"So since I got my license, I thought I'm going to get my salary back. When I waited, went back into the classroom, I still haven't received any salary. So all these months, I'm still waiting, no salary."
Reporter
"How has that impacted your life?"
Kimberly Lopez, Teacher, All Saints Anglican School
"We know a cost of living is very hard right now. So imagine."
Reporter
"Where you're getting the money to actually survive. Like I don't know, nobody in Belize, unless you are among the wealthy class. You are waiting for payday. I mean, that's the reality."
Kimberly Lopez, Teacher, All Saints Anglican School
"I've been getting money from all over, my spouse savings. Imagine you're saving for your future and you have to be touching your money from your future right now. I went back to class in September and I had to find money to prepare my class."
Janelle Cacho, Teacher, St. Joseph RC School
"I had inquired in October. I did not get a response until December and I had a very low amount and my license was going to expire in January. Anyway, long story short, I had to come off on January because my license had expired. I went back to school in June. So the last two weeks of June, I was working. I still did not receive a salary. Remember, I have been out since January. I did not receive any salary at the end of June."
"July, well, I said, okay, July, it will come in because I'm back in the system. Because you have to submit all your papers again to show that you have completed these 120 hours. So I made all those submissions."
"I was expecting my salary in July. I did not get my salary in July. I received my salary until August. And of course, you know, it's a back pay, it's a retro. So it was fully taxed. You know, so it's still like I was receiving just a pittance of what I should have had."
"It has caused just major distress and trauma and inconveniences on my part, you know, you have to function as a teacher, but then, you know, as a person how are you supposed to be functioning as a person to do your job if all of these things are hindering you."
Nadia Caliz, President, BNTU
"If Janelle doesn't get paid, Janelle lose her home and that is not something that is sitting well with us at all. She has a very nice loan officer right now who did not put her home out there, but it's about to hit foreclosure."
Hyde has promised that the teachers will be paid by Friday.
But the president says if that doesn't happen, the BNTU will begin striking up their green machine.
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