Retired Public Officers Join the Chorus: “We Won’t Be Forgotten!”

The voices calling for government accountability just got louder and older. Retired public officers across Belize stepped out of the shadows and into the spotlight this morning, demanding respect and recognition from the Government of Belize. Gathering in Battlefield Park and other key locations nationwide, members of the Association of Beneficiaries and Retired Public Officers made it clear: they’re not sitting quietly on the sidelines. Their message? “We refuse to be forgotten or left behind.” This bold move comes on the heels of last week’s fiery national demonstration in Belmopan, where tensions between union members and the government reached a boiling point. Now, retirees are adding their weight to the growing movement, standing shoulder to shoulder with active public servants in a united call for better treatment. Here’s Britney Gordon with the following report.

 

Burndina Eck, Retired Public Officer 

“Look at the walking stick there. Look at the wheelchair behind me. Many of us have to, you know, limp our wheel out here and we still haven’t gotten our money and we are hungry. We need to eat.”

 

Britney Gordon, Reporting

As union workers across Belize continue to demand fair wages and respect, a powerful new voice has joined the call, retired public officers who say they’ve waited long enough. For more than thirty years, they’ve been asking the government to pay up two years’ worth of salary increments that were frozen back in 1995. Now, with national momentum building around workers’ rights, they’re making it known that their struggle is far from over.

 

 Glenfield Dennison, Senator, National Trade Union Congress of Belize

“This cause is one where former public officers who have given their entire lives and career to the service of the government and people of Belize are literally dying before they are able to collect on a benefit that is there. Is this trust has been set up for so long and they have not been benefiting. And so the cry, the cry of these retired public officers are simply this, listen, we are ill, we are ailing. Our colleagues have died, and we need the proceeds and the benefits of this trust. And so I think that cause is a cause that anyone who would just process it would have to get behind.”

 

Over eight million dollars meant for retired public officers is sitting untouched in a trust and the retirees say it’s time to hand it over. The money is currently held by the Public Service Workers Trust, but the Association of Beneficiaries and Retired Public Officers is calling for the trust to be dissolved and the funds distributed. They say they’ve waited long enough. But there’s a legal snag. Prime Minister John Briceño says the government’s hands are tied because a subgroup of retirees has taken the matter to court. That group, known as the Jenetty group, is holding up the process, according to the Association’s interim vice president, Lizbeth Castillo.

 

Lizbeth Castillo, Interim VP, Association of Beneficiaries & Retired Public Officers

“I  am not that liberty to say what they actually intend to do, but  would think that between the Jenetty group and the government, they can come to some sort of agreement between themselves. So that we can pass, go past that stage. I do understand what the Prime Minister says that it’s before the court. Yes, it’s, but if he promises the Jenetty group, I will think that he will definitely de do a dissolution of the trust and do it in writing. That probably might be sufficient for them to drop that case, but we can’t have people just uttering words. Because words mean absolutely nothing if you have nothing in writing.”

 

He may not be owed a cent, but Glenfield Dennison is standing tall with those who are. The senator for the National Trade Union Congress of Belize has thrown his support behind the Association of Beneficiaries and Retired Public Officers in their ongoing battle for justice. He emphasized the need to deliver these funds quickly as more of them continue to die.

 

 Glenfield Dennison

“If the country is doing so well, why people noh di feel it. I don’t know what bubble the elected officials are living in, but it’s not the reality of the masses, and so I fear that it’s a situation where it’s the elected leaders and the CEOs who are directly linked to the political directorate, who are living in this vacuum where they alone see such a wonderful country and are living such a beautiful benefit when people are telling you, I don’t understand inflation, you know, but I understand my money noh enough.”

 

As of today, sixty-five of the beneficiaries have passed away before receiving their owed funds in the Belize District alone. Britney Gordon for News Five.

 

The Association of Beneficiaries and Retired Public Officers also publicly demonstrated in four other districts this morning.