Belize City Council and CWU Finally Come to an Agreement  

After almost seven years, the Belize City Council has finally inked a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) with the Christian Workers Union, aiming to uphold labor regulations and foster the municipality’s growth. This updated CBA brings several perks, including more compassionate leave, higher subsistence allowances, and staff salary adjustments. Mayor Bernard Wagner of Belize City shares more about this exciting milestone.

 

Bernard Wagner, Mayor, Belize City

“When  we came into office,  that CBA was then expiring in 2018 and we were quickly brought to the table in 2019 but things occur outside of our being able to get this done for our staff, our workers, our field workers, our administrative workers is really huge for us and I want to ensure that I left a document along with the union where workers interests are at the forefront.”

 

Britney Gordon

“You mentioned that a salary adjustment had already been in place since April of last year.”

 

Bernard Wagner

“Yeah, we did a real extensive look at the pay scales in our entire organization. And we found that in many instances there were some measure of not meeting the standards of their peers in the industry. Probably a field worker would not be getting the same pay if he were working in a private sector. And so we wanted to ensure that we fix that issue there. And which saw that for field workers. Their hourly rate went from really like six dollars and forty-six cents to seven dollars and four cents per hour. While our administrative staff went from eleven dollars and fourty-seven per hour to eleven dollars and ninety-seven cents per hour. So clearly that was really something that we feel proud of to hold our hats on. And like I said, a document of this nature. Is for the moment and it continues to evolve, it continues to be refined. And as you, you work towards refining it you will see that more benefits come towards workers.”