Joint Unions and Government Wrap Up 4-Hour Meeting on Collective Bargaining and Pension Reform

A meeting between the joint unions and government representatives concluded late this evening at the ITVET in Belize City.  It was a 4-hour meeting that looked primarily at a timeline to develop a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).  The details of this new CBA are yet to be ironed out as the unions will need to return to their members to get the greenlight to proceed.  Another item on the agenda was a proposal from the unions on pension reform and cost savings measures.  President of the Public Service Union, Dean Flowers, spoke on the pension reform matter.  According to Flowers, in May there was a finalization of the Terms of References for three committees.  These committees have been tasked to look at cost savings, enhancement of revenues as well as pension reforms.  The reports from these committees were looked at during today’s meeting.  

Dean Flowers, President, PSU: “We had a discussion on that and both of those committees are expected to provide an interim report to the wider body in late October, early November. Sorry, let me correct that in late September, early October, we should receive reports, interim reports from those committees and hopefully then moving into the end of the year and into the new fiscal year we can see implementation of some of those recommendations as well as hopefully new recommendations. Too many anomalies exist and too many discretionary power also exists in every aspect from hiring to what ultimately that compensation package will be and so that exercise is being tied to the pension reform and so as part of pension reform if clearly if it is that people now have to contribute to a pension you have to ensure that you’re properly compensating them to be able to contribute otherwise you’ll be putting them in a worse financial position in the immediate as well as as retiring them into possible poverty because the recommendations from the IMF of course is to reduce the replacement rate and so that won’t fly with us. The constitution under section 112.2b guarantees us that if there is any change to that pension, to the pension scheme, it has to be to our benefit and not to our detriment. So the salary revision exercise incorporates the entire concept of the pension scheme and like I said we’re at the initial stages.”

The three government representatives present at the meeting were Ministers Francis Fonseca, Henry Charles Usher and Deputy Prime Minister, Cordel Hyde.  According to DPM Hyde, an IDB consultant was brought in to look at the current pay scales in the government service.

Cordel Hyde, Deputy Prime Minister: “One of the big items on the agenda today was a new collective bargaining agreement. And so those discussions will start in earnest pretty soon. That’s the nature of the business but we had a very good meeting. Very informative, very courteous, very engaging and so, but I’m sure they will update you some more on the details. We have a revenue enhancement committee at work. We have a cost savings committee at work. I also had a consultancy on the government pay and grade trying to modernize how that is done. And there is an interim report that’s been provided, circulated to the members and they will have intensive discussion and deliberation on that and that. Revolutionary stuff is in there but let me not get ahead of myself and leave that for the folks to engage on. Let me clarify it’s not salary adjustment we discussed today. What we discussed was we had a technical consultancy to look at the whole modernization of the pay system and how that has been working. The unions actually insisted on that before we get into pension reform. They wanted us to have some clarity with that and that consultant has found some really heavy stuff. And so, revolutionary stuff even and so they will have, we will have an opportunity to look at that, various unions and government’s side and then we will deliberate on that.”

Our newsroom will report more on today’s meeting in Friday’s newscast.