BEL Defends Severance Policy as Review Gets Underway

The fight over severance at Belize Electricity Limited is now a race against the clock. As we told you Tuesday night, the dispute follows a recent Caribbean Court of Justice ruling, and BEL says it’s taking a hard look at every claim on the table. In a statement issued yesterday, the company announced a sweeping review of severance and pension claims from former employees, some reaching back decades. BEL insists it has followed the law all along, often exceeding what’s required, and argues that where pension benefits already cover severance, additional payouts aren’t owed. The utility says it’s issuing responses case by case as that review continues. But for members of the Belize Energy Workers for Justice, that process feels painfully slow. One member told us the answers aren’t coming fast enough, and for workers waiting on long-promised payments, patience is wearing thin.

 

Dorla Staine, Member, Belize Energy Workers for Justice

“We just want to be clear, this matter was formally raised. It was acknowledged. A response was promised. Now it has been delayed by over two months, but let me add to that, it is not just two months, it is form the time that ruling took place in November of last year. BEL knows of that ruling and let me bring in here, our sisters and brothers who are working in the company right now under the Belize Energy Workers Union, we cannot speak for them. We had an engaged talk with them. We get fundamentally that yes they support our cause and let me say from the union executive, that is the official response we got. But they need time to speak with their members and they have some other priorities going on inside that they have to attend to. This right here is not the priority.”

 

After Decades of Service, Severance Still Out of Reach

 

We also bring you one man’s deeply personal story, one that puts a human face on this severance dispute. Former BEL employee Sean Nicholas says the company’s failure to pay what he’s owed has pushed his family into serious hardship. After decades of service, Nicholas tells us he’s now medically unfit to work, having survived three strokes. And yet, the severance he says he relied on, and earned, still hasn’t arrived.

 

Sean Nicholas, Member, Belize Energy Workers for Justice

“I have done thirty-one plus years at the company. The hardship without severance has put some problems on me. I suffered three strokes and I am medically off from BEL. Not getting my severance put pressure on me and my family. I am the bread winner for my family, still the bread winner. I understand we have a new CEO. Effective tomorrow we have a new chairman of the board. I am asking these people to please have some consideration to myself and my employees. I sit around this table with pain and suffering. I am begging you to do workers right.”

 

The dispute is far from over, and as BEL’s review continues, former workers say they’re still waiting, not just for answers, but for the relief they believe they’re owed.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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