A Labor Education Seminar

There is no shortage of disputes in the work place that involve employers and employees. This morning at the auditorium of the Belize Elementary School, representatives of the private sector gathered for an informational seminar titled Employers and Workers Rights and Responsibilities. A slew of relevant issues were ventilated including the Labor Act, Factories Act, Collective Bargaining Agreement and the Occupational Safety and Health Bill. Organizer of the workshop was the Labor Department and according to Commissioner, Ivan Williams, it is incumbent on the department to provide labor education to both employer and employees.

Ivan Williams, Labor Commissioner

Ivan Williams

“The main purpose is for us to engage workers and employers in a full discussion on the labor laws of Belize with a view to informing them of their rights and responsibilities under the labor legislation and the ILO conventions and other legal obligations. We hope that through this session workers and employers will be able to fully appreciate the importance of working together and the importance of respecting each other and complying with those obligations that exist on both sides. The Labor Department sees this as one of its ways to carry out one of its important function, that is labor education because it is difficult to reach the entire public and quit often to pass on knowledge. So we are hoping that this workshop will also serve as a kind of train the trainer because it comprises of workers in the workplace and the managerial and the rank and file level. So it’s a combination of both upper management and lower management and we hope that the discussions will continue at the workplace, that those who learn and benefit from the knowledge here, can go back and can maybe pass on some of the educational material and can be a part and help in the resolution of any misunderstanding or misrepresentation or misinterpretation of the various types of the legislation.”