KHMHA Union Meeting Yields Progress, But Workers Remain Cautious

The KHMHA Workers Union has been appeased for now but their silence does not indicate satisfaction.  Love News understands that there was progress made this morning when union leaders of the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital Authority met with senior government officials in the health and finance sectors.  Earlier this month, the union demonstrated twice over unresolved pension issues which they want resolved sooner rather than later.  The crux of the matter is that some 300 long-serving employees in the health sector are without retirement benefits or pension.  For some historical context, it was back in 2018 that the Provident Fund was established to cater to new hires and not existing employees of the KHMH.  Fast forward several years later and those who were not eligible to be a part of the fund are now left empty handed.  Union leader, Andrew Baird, led the first demonstration on Saturday, February 8 in the parking lot of the KHMH just after the government wrote off 54 million dollars in outstanding bills for patients at the hospital.  Today, he told Love News that while a final resolution needs to happen, the meeting in Belmopan was a step in the right direction.

Andrew Baird, President, KHMHA Worker’s Union: “I must say that we had a very, very amicable meeting. The FinSec represented the prime minister ministry. We had representatives from the ministry of health, as well as the CEO of Karl Heusner and the chair for the board of director of Karl Heusner was also present at the meeting. We had discussion. We still have not made any agreement as yet but there was some proposals of how things could work that was put to the table of which at this time I would not want to mention because I have to go back to our membership and staff of Karl Heusner to discuss proposals that was tabled and then I can then speak to the media on that.”

Reporter: Would you say that the proposals that were made are something maybe beneficial to the membership or do you believe that they still need adjusting? 

Andrew Baird, President, KHMHA Worker’s Union: “There is there’s still the I’s and T’s, I’s that need to be dotted and the T’s that need to be crossed and some fine-tuning as far as coming to any agreement. Each side has a responsibility to carry through with. The government side will have to produce a template to the union in reference to what is required from us and we have a responsibility to insert those our 300 members into that template and to see where they are placed as far as categories and stuff like that. And in a week or two we come back to the table to further discuss. I would hope that within the next couple of months or so that we will be able to come under some agreement and get this over with.”

Union leader Baird added that while the union is satisfied with the outcome of the meeting, it stands ready to continue demonstrating should the matter go unresolved for much longer. Today’s meeting was with the Financial Secretary, Joseph Waight as well as the Chief Executive Officer for health, Dr Julio Sabido and Dr. Melissa Musa, the Director of Health and Wellness.