BCWJ Returns to Picket Line Demanding Outstanding Severance from BTL

Despite losing protest days earlier this week due to reported permit adjustments, members of the Belize Communication Workers for Justice (BCWJ) were back on the picket line today outside the Belize Telemedia Limited headquarters on St. Thomas Street.  A small but determined group of protestors stood their ground holding placards and peacefully demonstrating, sending a clear message that they are still awaiting severance payments they say were ordered by the Caribbean Court of Justice.  Spokesperson Emily Turner told reporters the movement is growing, noting that more current and former BTL employees have begun reaching out to join the effort in hopes of receiving what they believe is owed to them.  BCWJ says approximately 175 former employees form part of the group, while BTL has reportedly settled with about 70 past workers so far.

Emily Turner, Former BTL Employee: “A lot of employees are contacting us. I guess it’s a good thing we did start speaking about this publicly. And up to now, like I said, we have 175 that are still pending the settlement of the severance and these are former employees of BTL. I do want to highlight that BTL stopped paying severance in 1994. And so when we look at when the judgment came out it is 2025 it’s 31years that they have been violating this labor law of ours where severance is supposed to be paid to people that work in companies in the least. And I do want to highlight that why then is you get a pension but then we stop getting a severance and what the CCJ said is that our pensions are set up that they are contribution. Every person that you see here contributed at least 3% of of their salary for all the years that they worked. And so, BTL was matching that contribution. So when they left, they got both those contributions. At the time 3% with the salaries they were making was not a lot. It’s not a lot. The pension has gotten better because we were an organized group that always negotiated to increase the pension. But a lot of these people did not have that benefit of having pensions that were contributory at like 8% I think that it is today. But the severance, what the CCJ is saying is that while you set up this pension you have to account for severance. You have to have a separate amount that only the company will put aside for employees when they leave because this severance payment is considered a social justice clause in our laws of Belize. So that’s very important for us to explain to the public that these and other companies that have pensions set up, you cannot assume that the pensions can subsume the severance. You have to have a separate line that only the employer contributes, and that’s then what would then make up that severance payment when the employee leaves, and if you don’t have that, then you have to pay that to an employee when they leave.”

Turner also acknowledged that the company’s administration has been communicating with the organization but criticized what she described as unnecessary delays.  The workers maintain that the court ruling is clear and are urging the company to complete payments without further delay as the dispute continues.

Emily Turner, Former BTL Employee: “And last week Friday, they did write us and asked us to give them until February 6th, which is tomorrow. And so that they are reviewing with attorneys and they will get back to us. So we wrote them back yesterday or Tuesday, and we told them, “What are you going to get a mere attorney to go and interpret the ruling of a CCJ where you had very experienced judges of the Caribbean Court of Justice , of CARICOM, where we all all recognize this as the highest court. What are we all, what are these attorneys going to say that would be different than what these people have already said? So we said no we don’t want to hear what your interpretations are. We just want to know when these cheques are going to be ready so that we can then organize our people to come and collect them. So we are now moving into getting everybody’s information together, we’re going to do our calculations because we want to give BTL what’s their total, at least for the group that we are representing that they don’t want to pay. Because we hope that by tomorrow they can know what that number is. And I think it’s very important that even right now that we’re having a discussion about the acquisition, it’s important that we know how much is it that BTL owes. BTL cannot be wanting to spend $80 million dollars and doesn’t want to recognize and know the amount of this debt. That is very irresponsible.” 

The protests are expected to continue tomorrow in Belmopan to run parallel to the Sitting of the house of Representatives meeting at the National Assembly./