On Wednesday April 7, the Public Service Union held a series of consultations with its membership during which they were appraised of the negotiations between the joint unions negotiating team and the Government representatives. During the online meetings the members were also asked whether or not industrial action should be taken. Following the meetings the union voted in an overwhelming fashion to serve the Government of Belize with a notice that there is a trade dispute.
The PSU has been left with this position after the Government was unmoved on their proposal to cut the salaries of public officers by 10 percent and freeze their increments for the next three years. The Unions had been negotiating even over the Easter weekend with meetings taking place on Saturday and Monday. Still there was no resolution.
But even as there were so called negotiations, in the background, Government was working to proceed with the reading of the Budget which will take place on Friday April 9th. It would seem disingenuous to say the least, to have the unions believe that they were negotiating towards the public officers not receiving a salary cut when in the back end the Government proceeded with its budget preparations with the salary cuts already being taken into consideration.
