Incoming S.S.B. C.E.O. Promises an Era of Dialogue and Transparency

Today, at the annual S.S.B. Connect forum, the Executive Director of BELTRADE, Doctor Leroy Almendarez, was introduced as the incoming C.E.O. of the Social Security Board. Doctor Almendarez is assuming the post amidst tensions between the board, the Christian Workers Union, and the National Trade Union Congress of Belize. In recent weeks, the unions have written to the board expressing frustration over their alleged exclusions from crucial meetings and conversations. We spoke with Doctor Almendarez about how he plans to navigate this transition. Here’s what he had to say.

 

Leroy Almendarez, Incoming C.E.O., S.S.B.

“I consider the unions, let’s say that remember they represent labor It’s important for them to protect the people, you know that they represent because everybody cannot come to the table I intend, and I say I in this case, to have a next, to have a relationship, to have open dialogue with the unions. In essence, let it not get to the public. The door will be open where we can discuss these things in advance, so it does not have to be escalated. Where we think that, it, it requires a situation where the board needs to intervene, Then it’s for me to listen and take that information to the chair and say, okay, we need to look at this even more closely because there’s a, I believe that for every situation there is a resolution. And so when I saw, for example, the black ribbons on some members of staff, knowing that I was going to take over and say, okay, why, how did we get here?  Because where I work now, we don’t get there, right? We resolve internal issues, of course, even in the absence of a union. But they represent the people that they represent even if they’re employees of social security. It is my job  working along with the deputy working along with the you know with the management team and in you know really in cohesion with the board to make sure that the work that we do are in fact all for the benefit of those internal let me say this quickly if you do not make the environment conducive for your internal customers where your square employees, then the external customers will be disadvantaged because you will not get the kind of service that they’re supposed to be getting. We build a team, we create an environment where people feel welcome, to perform. But as I said, where the unions are concerned, they are there for a reason. And one of the things I will not do. It’s a close the door from the unions when they say we need to dialogue.”