Labor Leaders Hail Historic OSH Breakthrough

After more than seventeen years of pushing for stronger worker protections, Belizean labor advocates are finally seeing a breakthrough. The long‑awaited Occupational Safety and Health Bill has been passed, marking what union leaders call a major step forward for employees across the country. NTUCB President Ella Waight is hailing the moment as historic, crediting years of collaboration between unions, the Chamber of Commerce, and government agencies for keeping the issue alive. She says the real work begins now, with a focus on making sure the new law isn’t just on the books, but fully enforced where it matters most: on the job site.

 

Ella Waight, President, National Trade Union Congress of Belize

“We are glad, we are so happy that we are finally here. There are so many protections in the bill that will help to safeguard workers of this country. We of course would like to, if I could take a opportunity to thank those Senior United i’m having more sister Fra sister all meet many times with with our group to ensure that we go word by word, line by line for those, draft of the bill. So it was a long dudu bill, and we are so happy that it finally has gone through. Now, of course, there’s other steps that we have to continue to ensure that it’s basically, it has peace to it when it comes to the bill. We don’t want it to just be a ability on the show, but we can apply towards the everyday life of workers in this country. So we are very happy. We, we thank all those government, agencies, ministries, departments, persons that were involved in this process as well, because they actually had to lead the charge as well. So we are happy that we finally have a bill for workers of this country.”