Unions Celebrate Landmark Workplace Safety Law

The passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Bill today marks a major legislative milestone, but for labor advocates, it’s also the culmination of years of persistence and pressure. Outside the National Assembly, long‑time union leader and former NTUCB president Luke Martinez described the moment as historic, crediting labor unions and social partners for keeping the fight for worker safety alive.

 

Luke Martinez, Past President, National Trade Union Congress of Belize

“Today is a very historic day for the National Trade Union Congress and for the workers of this country. As a matter of fact, it’s a historic day for the private sector, including the workers and so on. So the Occupational Safety and Health Bill is finally in the chambers aof the National Assembly for a second reading. I’ve been following the OSH since 2014 when I was working at the National Assembly as a records and research officer and had the privilege of picking it up when I was president of the National Trade Union Congress. Some people would’ve say, oh, they the throw the OSH for make the unions relax off of this BTL Smart Acquisition. This is something that has been in the pipeline, right? And we met with PM before all of these things start off, right? So is it timely? It’s overdue, right? And the hard work will now come in how we are going to set up the regulations to affect occupational safety and health in this country. So this is very historic. I am the person who came up with that slogan, Rush the OSH, right? And we remain committed to continue to work with this legislation and continue to ensure that the regulations are going to put into effect, and even how we move to bring up our people to specialize in occupational safety and health.”