Appearing on 7 News on Tuesday, February 9 was Prime Minister John Briceño. He was questioned on a number of issues but the one that stuck on us was his answer to the possibility of persons losing their jobs after the Belize Bank completes the purchase of Scotiabank in Belize. Answering the question he stated that, “Well, I have not seen that report. So I can’t really comment with certainty. But I can tell you that one job loss is one too much. And we hope that in the consolidation that they do not move quickly to try to let go of people. But also to have some sort of social conscience that at this moment there are no jobs out there. So if you were to let go people now there is nowhere to go. So, we would have to take a look at that and see how best we can discourage them from letting people go.”
Being slack-jawed is not a reaction that could fully describe what the sentiment was after hearing Briceño’s answer. This is the very man who just a few days earlier, on January 20, told the nation that persons were being fired from the Transport Department were phantom workers. He said that, “On the issue of the people that have been let go at the bus terminals, as I am told, many of those people were just put there by the previous minister. Many of them were just there as placeholders, many of them were not even working. Many of them did not even qualify for the post that they were given. They were simply given a post because they served or supported the former Minister of Transport and we need to put in people that can do the work and people also, just as important, people that are prepared to cooperate with the government. Many instances we have a lot of people within government because they pledge allegiance to the previous government or to the UDP. They do every and anything to undermine the work of the government and many of these people, we saw this happening, and so it was felt that in the interest of the bus industry and to be able to provide proper service to the public that that they had to be released.”
Absolutely no consideration was given to the fact that these very people were not phantom and in fact were at the terminals when they were given their walking papers. They in fact had to stop the work they were carrying out after they were served. Even so, there was not though on what Briceño is now saying, that is that when people are let go there is nowhere to go.
What’s even more is that the firings continue. Just this week nine persons were terminated from the Belize Marketing and Development Corporation. They now form part of a long list of hundreds of workers who have been fired from the Transport Department, the Border Management agency, the Central Building Authority, the Ministry of Housing, the Ministry of Works, the Ministry of Health, the Northern Regional Hospital, the San Ignacio Hospital, NHI in Dangriga, the Port Authority and many other institutions across the country.
