BEL’s Sick and Elderly Ex-Employees Protest for Severance

For these former workers, this is no longer just about back pay, it’s about survival. Today, a group of retired Belize Electricity Limited employees, many of them elderly and facing serious health challenges, gathered outside the company’s offices to demand what they say they earned decades ago. They insist a landmark regional court ruling backs their claim, yet the severance they’re owed has never arrived. Tired of waiting and running out of time, they took their plea directly to BEL’s doorstep. News Five’s Shane Williams was there and brings us a story driven by urgency, dignity, and a fight they say they cannot afford to lose.

 

Shane Williams Reporting…

Under the scorching midday sun in Belize City, a group of former Belize Electricity Limited workers stood not in strength, but in determination. Many are elderly. Some are ill. All say they’ve come too far and given too much to walk away empty-handed.

 

Shawn Nicholas, Organizer, BEWJ

“ We believe no service, no severance package. We get a pension and I believe the ruling of 2025 have said that is not sufficient to deal with severance, and we believe our severance has not been paid yet.”

 

For these former employees, this fight goes far beyond the courtroom, it hits close to home. After decades of service, they say they’re now being reduced to pleading for benefits they rightfully earned. Today, they sent a stern message to the directors of Belize Electricity Limited, making it clear this is not just about money, but about dignity, respect, and fairness after a lifetime of work.

 

Dorla Staine, Organizer, BEWJ

“Have a shame, have shame. I mean it take your workers to be out here in this sun hot begging for something that they know we deserve. They have not paid us that as they are saying, because pension is pension and severance is severance. And we make contribution towards that pension, which it is combined and the company turn around and states that whatever they have put into the pension become a part of severance. Doesn’t that equate to you paying yourself, if you already gave it to me, how can you get and say this is where it will goes?”

 

Behind the small crowd gathered today are many more, too sick, too weak, or hospitalized to even show up.

 

Dorla Staine

“Man, It’s rough. It’s rough. Let me say that because while we are out here, we have some members too who are at home who can’t even come. Some are blind. Some are deaf. And to go back and we have two members in the hospital right now fighting for their lives. And we have two or three home trying to make recovery. And those are the members that really, or the employees that really built this company.”

 

Still, those who could make it out say they are carrying the burden for all, determined to see justice, not just for themselves, but for workers across the country and they are calling on Labor Minister Kareem Musa to intervene, arguing that the law is already on their side.

 

Shawn Nicholas

“The Minister of Labor is a lawyer. He know the CCJ. And he know what BEL did is doing to us is illegal. And he needs to move. We don’t wanna hear him on the radio or on the news that he support. He got right now weh he could move because he got the law pan ih hand. He could move without we the stand up out ya the go through this, I suffer three stroke my brother. I noh business fu de out here. I’m out here fighting for what is mine and for other workers all over this country and inna the Caribbean.”

 

But while they wait for action from government, there is also disappointment that current BEL employees have not joined the protest.

 

Shawn Nicholas

“The workers in there need to come out here too because today for we, tomorrow they will be out here seeking their severance. We believe they should be out here. So to show some support. We have planned this between the lunch time so that they noh infringe with their employer because we love BEL. That’s why Miss Dorla do forty years. I do thirty-one. Right here da seventy-odd years of experience yo looking here of building this company. So we don’t wanna hurt this company and we don’t want the workers either, but they need to come out and secure their severance.”

 

For these workers, time is no longer a luxury. As health declines and years pass, their message is simple justice delayed is justice denied. They need their severance now. Shane Williams for News Five.

 

Documents Show BEL Senior Managers Received Severance

 

And tonight News Five has uncovered documents that could add fuel to an already heated dispute. While former BEL workers say they are being denied severance, records obtained by our newsroom show that senior managers within the company have, in fact, received substantial severance payouts upon their departure. The revelation is sparking outrage among members of the Belize Energy Workers for Justice, who say it confirms what they’ve long suspected, that there is one standard for those at the top and another for the workers who helped build the company. They argue that while executives were quietly compensated, ordinary employees are now being forced to fight, even with illness, for benefits they believe are rightfully theirs.

 

Shawn Nicholas, Organizer, BEWJ

“We believe – remember the company senior people they run the company. There’s some things happening within the company, which we might not know knowledge but we know they pay themself. Because remember they are paying themselves. They’re serving for themselves. So we know some employees, management get severance also…”

 

Dorla Staine, Organizer, BEWJ

“We know further back that was happening. It was a stink one time in the company. When we were asking in 1999, the workers were saying, pay us our severance. Let us start fresh under the new regime. They said No, we will start a pension. But lo and behold, there were documents circulating where you see big names for big people at the top. They pay themself and they give themself bonuses. And that’s another thing they’re denied. The non-management persons what we call expression. Don’t even ask it because that is reserved for the big people.”

 

Shane Williams

“And you all can’t even get severance”

 

Dorla Staine

“And not even the servants they want to give to us. And I want to say too, while this is severance we are talking, even the pension benefits they have slashed in two, but this is for severance now. And I myself am behind them three, four years now to give me fifty percent of my pension that they have hold in there. I was speaking to Mr. Lynn Young. I was speaking to Mr. Mencias. I’ve ride them right through the Covid because I was sick. I needed money. I had a kidney stone that took a toll on me. It cost me a kidney. And while you’re trying to get your benefits, they don’t even bat an eye.”

 

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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