JUNT, GOB Conclude High-Stakes Salary Negotiation Meeting

On Tuesday, leaders of the Joint Union Negotiating Team (JUNT) entered into a critical negotiation session with senior government ministers in Belize City. The unions are demanding an 8.5% across-the-board salary increase for the approximately 16,000 public officers paid from the public purse.

The government, however, has raised concerns about the financial feasibility of this request, pointing out that the public sector wage bill already totals $700 million annually. An additional 8.5% would cost the government an estimated $63 million more.

Following the meeting, Minister of Education Oscar Requena described the session as positive and respectful. “We had a very good meeting. It was a very cordial, respectful meeting. And just to pre-empt, there is a proposal on the table and I think it was well received,” he said. He refrained from disclosing details of the government’s proposal, adding, “I do not want to speak to the specifics because we do have a proposal, we need to go back to Cabinet and thereafter we’ll be able to speak to you on the specifics.”

Deputy Prime Minister Cordel Hyde also characterized the meeting as constructive. “We had a very constructive meeting. We discussed the issues at length and I think we reached some level of over-standing… very constructive, very serious, very frank, but very respectful,” he said. On the matter of whether the government will meet the 8.5% demand, Hyde remained cautious: “We have a proposal, but we don’t want to prejudice that. The union leaders have to take it back to their membership. We have to take it to Cabinet.”

On the union side, BNTU President Nadia Caliz noted that while the meeting began cordially, tensions rose when union leaders felt their demands were not being fully acknowledged. “It was cordial until we got to a point where the demands of workers, in our view, was not taken seriously. And so we had to let them know that… I have a mandate for strike,” Caliz said. She confirmed that the government made a proposal but withheld details, explaining, “Let me just say they present us with a proposal that we need to take to our membership first before we can talk about it publicly.” She added, “I don’t want members to go with the wrong impression because they, too, have to vote on what the government presented to us today.”

PSU President Dean Flowers commended the tone of the discussions. “We had a very respectful meeting, as we always do… We did not waver with that demand. We stuck it out,” Flowers said. “The Cabinet subcommittee considered the request and they made an offer. They now go back to get the endorsement of Cabinet… I can say that today was a successful round of negotiation for the most part.”