N.T.U.C.B. Discusses National Issues at A.G.M.

Luke Martinez

The National Trade Union Congress of Belize (N.T.U.C.B.) held its fifty-sixth Annual General Meeting in Punta Gorda on Saturday and Sunday. The two-day event included discussions on a number of national topics, including workers’ rights and UNCAC, among others. President of the N.T.U.C.B., Luke Martinez said that the meeting was well-attended and shared some of those topics with us.

Luke Martinez, President, N.T.U.C.B.

“In terms of the workers’ rights, we were concerned about occupational and health safety and of course the National Trade Union Congress and the Chamber have been working on that document, we’ve completed that document and we have written to the Ministry of Labour already to submit the final document. That was submitted on the seventeenth of November, We’re still waiting for a feedback from the ministry. However, we’ll push to get the OSH on the agenda for the next Labour Advisory Board meeting. We also spoke about C-one fifty-eight. You know that protects the workers from employers who continue to send home workers without any reason or cause by way of the very weak labour laws that we have. We’re also aware that – and it’s taking a long while – that the ministry is working on a comprehensive review of the labour laws with assistance from our regional and international partners. So we’ve been very focused on workers’ rights. As it relates to the national issues, you know that the cost of energy continues to be a concern to Belizeans because you know the cost of energy also has an impact on inflation, cost of living, cost of fuel, it continues to be a concern. We also spoke about corruption and UNCAC and how we could continue to push to get those legislations going, for example, illicit enrichment, and so on. The National Trade Union Congress – we’ve already made our submissions to the minister, so they’ve shared draft bills with us. We’ve submitted our position on those draft bills and we’d have expected that those bills will be tabled in the National Assembly, so certainly we have to push on that.”