The Government of Belize has tabled a new salary adjustment proposal to the Joint Unions Negotiating Team (JUNT). Deputy Prime Minister Cordel Hyde told News 5 this afternoon that he remains hopeful that this time around, it may bring an end to weeks of deadlock in negotiations between the Government of Belize and
Talks resumed today at the ITVET compound in Belize City, as JUNT reviewed the government’s third proposal, a revised offer that includes an 8.5% salary adjustment and reinstatement of two frozen increments over two years, which have been key issues for teachers and public officers.
The latest proposal offers an increase of half a percentage, bringing it to 4.5% to start rolling out in October.
Hyde confirmed that the revised offer goes beyond the previously proposed 4%, stating, “Yeah, it’s actually going to be four and a half per cent on October 1st of this year, which is more than half of the original request of eight and a half per cent.”
He added that the government has laid out a clear two-year timeline for the full adjustment. “It took us a while for us to reach this point that we can say, ‘Okay, this is what we are going to be able to do, and this is a timeline,'” Hyde said. “We’ve spelt out to them very clearly the timeline in terms of how we are going to get those stuff done over the next two years.”
Union leaders are expected to present the proposal to their members ahead of a major public demonstration for this Saturday.
“We are hopeful that the membership will see that we’ve been a good fit and see that we’ve delivered on their demands, on their requests,” Hyde stated. “We have a third proposal and hopefully this is ‘THE’ proposal.”