Joint Unions Say No to Four Percent Raise  

It was a long day of talks at the Public Service Union headquarters in Belize City on Friday, where union leaders met for a marathon meeting. After hours of back-and-forth, senior public officers made their stance clear: they’re not accepting the government’s proposed 4% salary increase. The decision adds fuel to the ongoing standoff between the unions and the Briceño administration, as tensions continue to rise over pay and working conditions. Earlier today, we caught up with Minister Henry Charles Usher to hear his thoughts on the latest development.

 

Henry Charles Usher, Minister of Public Service

“We haven’t gotten a formal response as yet and I would prefer to see what their formal response is to us, but from what they said on Friday, they still may not agree to the increase that was offered to them, going from three to four percent. I think what we have to look at is the fact that of the seven proposals or so, we have a majority, a vast majority, I think that’s the only one that we don’t have full agreement on. So we have found mutual ground on all of the other issues and we also have mutual grounds on the eight-point-five percent. Government has never said that it was not a, or it was a situation where they would not get 8.5%, it’s just that we want to know how it can be properly implemented. The proposal is to do four percent starting October first, 2025 and to look at the 4.5% in the other two fiscal years.”