Sharon Fraser on Transition as A.P.S.S.M. President

Sharon Fraser

Chief Magistrate Sharon Fraser also serves as the president of the Association of Public Service Senior Managers and is one of the lead negotiators in the ongoing dialogue between the Government of Belize and the Joint Union Negotiating Team. With her retirement on the horizon, Fraser speaks about what the transition will look like for her from the A.P.S.S.M., as well as from the JUNT.

Sharon Fraser, President, A.P.S.S.M.

“Even though the constitution does not provide that you have to be a serving public officer to be a part of the association, I think I’m at the point where I just want to quiet my spirit. I am going to assist in whatever way I can; I am going to put something in place for a proper transition and then eventually I am hoping that I will have a replacement that has the kind of tenacity, the drive, the commitment that I have given to the association. So yes, eventually I will give somebody else a chance to shine. To be honest with you, I was hoping that at least our CBA would have been completed. I had expectation that even before I retired, at least that we would have concluded, the CBA; if nothing else. There have been proposals on there that people have retired and have not benefited, proposals that A.P.S.S.M. had put forward that has not concluded. And of course, we are here; it is not concluded and I don’t see it concluding by the date I am to leave. How that is going to work, I am not sure how that is going to work. I am going to see by the feedback that I get in relation to what my next move is going to be. Like I said, I just want to quiet my spirit. A number of public officers, they work hard, they retire and they die.  They never get to enjoy the years of contribution they have made and I am hoping that I at least can get to do that and still assist in whatever way that I can in looking to the interest of public officers and senior managers.”