Dangriga Residents Seek Work in Belmopan Following Ready Call Closing  

Earlier this year, the Ready Call Center in Dangriga closed after just ten months of operation, following its acquisition by Fusion Outsourcing and Services. The closure left hundreds of Belizeans in the Stann Creek District, historically the country’s highest-unemployment area, scrambling for work. Dangriga Area Representative Dr. Louis Zabaneh had assured the public that the government would bring a new BPO to the region, but so far, none has opened. We asked him for an update on those efforts.

 

Dr. Louis Zabaneh, Area Representative, Dangriga

“When it comes to Ready Call earlier this year, it was acquired by another BPO down here, and you had mentioned that the, you were looking to get another BPO because about two thousand people were employed at that Ready Call that got acquired, and there’s no one that reopened after that. Where are we in terms of getting another BPO down here? In Dangriga, we had we were moving towards two hundred at the center that they had here in Dangriga. And a couple of things happened first while we obviously were not privy to around January, February, when those negotiations were going on with the sale to another company. So looking back now and understanding that is what was happening we, we have a better. More clarity on why it is that the pressure that we were placing for the wages to go up from seven dollars an hour closer to what the industry was offering above eight, nine dollars an hour didn’t materialize well. They were in the process of transitioning to the new company. Fortunately, another company in Belmopan started to hire our people here. And now we have three busses that leave to Belmopan. So that company that have employed our people we are again in consultation with some of the same people who helped us to bring radical here. We have the facilities here and we certainly would welcome another provider another company to come to Dangriga, in addition to the fact that we now have quite a number of our people employed in the sector. This time mostly in Belmopan or working from home.”