As we mentioned, the PSU was a part of the meeting held yesterday with Minister Perez and today they issued a release specifying the allowances that should be paid to the firefighters. This includes hazard, danger, wet and dirty, and EMS. They reiterated the need for an increase in housing allowance as well. And they also highlighted the need for a financial and inventory audit of the National Fire Service, considering the allegations of mismanagement of funds and missing assets - in this case, 70 work boots. They're also requesting that firefighters are consulted before making policy changes and that performance appraisals be conducted in a timely manner and that outstanding increments be paid.
Today the president of the PSU explained more via Zoom.
Dean Flowers, President, PSU
"I don't think that even with the best legal advice, the government can argue that those allowances that we outlined in the letter is not deserving to those officers. Those allowances speaks clearly to the exposure of risk in its various forms."
"And the beautiful thing is, all of these allowances are already listed in the compendium of allowance. Now, an argument can be made that, well, the fire department is not listed under those allowances."
"Well, I can say that there are members within the fire department that are earning some of those allowances. And the fact that the fire department is not listed under some of them is no fault of the firefighters."
"It is the fault of their leadership to not having ensured, and I'm not only referring to the current leadership, but former leadership, previous CEOs, previous HODs, they should have ensured that given the fact that the government of Belize was prepared to pay these allowances to public officers that work under these conditions, that they would have ensured and secured proper compensation of firefighters who are some of the lowest-paid public officers in the system."
"And so that is what caused a lot of these issues when it comes to overtime. These people work hard, they expose themselves, but they're poorly compensated. And so most of the time in an effort to try to compensate for that shortfall in income to be able to pay their rent, feed their children, assist their parents, people rely on overtime."
"And sadly, Some departments have made over time, a staple in public officers salary, and this is just one such case. And so it is not necessarily the overtime that we're fighting for. It is for the fair treatment of fire service officers who are deserving of these allowances, which, as I said, already provided for in the compendium."
Email
Print