Is Santander Favoring Foreigners for Lucrative Jobs?
Ivan Williams
According to Williams, and this is certainly not the first time this complaint has been ventilated, workers feel that they are not being given access to lucrative employment. They feel that the company favours the hiring of foreigners, many brought in from Guatemala, to do the jobs which pay more. That complaint has prompted the Labour Department to take a more active role in the recruitment of Belizeans – to the point that those seeking a job at Santander can actually apply at labour offices across the country.
Ivan Williams, Labour Commissioner
“We recognize that here’s this company that comes in…a massive investment that requires a large work force because they’re building a factory, they’re setting up boilers and dealing with a lot of steel structures, and we want to ensure at the Labour Department that as many Belizeans as possible who meet the requirement get jobs. The Department will not approve bringing in foreign workers if there are locals who can do the job. To that end we have partnered with the company to ensure that every vacancy that exists is advertised. The company can do their own advertising but we had agreed that through the most widely distributed means, the Labour Department will be part of that advertisement process with a condition that in those advertisements any Belizean who wants to be employed can visit any of the Labour offices countrywide and have their names registered as job seekers. Every week we expect to receive from Santander the requirements for the type of vacancies that they have, and through our Public Employment Service we’ll be matching people and making referrals and see how that goes. So if there is any Belizean out there who feels that they meet the requirements and would like a job there, we will look through that process to ensure that as many Belizeans as possible get employed.”
I was born and grew up in this beautiful country, but there is one thing that bothers me; we don’t seems to understand, Belize’s population and economy is very small when compared to our neighboring countries, so our expertise is limited to our experience: having more people requires heavy competition, so better skills is developed by everyone. In Belize we are always satisfied with half baked cakes or burnt bun. So, the foreigners are better prepared for the jobs which requires higher skills. End of story.
When I first heard about this factory being built a little over a year ago, I was visiting Belmopan with a childhood friend of mine who knew of and was affiliated with the project. This was one of my primary points which I raised; who were we going to hire. Belize doesn’t possess qualified nor enough electrical engineers, project managers, welders, steel fabricators, mechanical engineers, OHSA individuals, and the list goes on and on. The end result, we have to employ nothing but foreigners. The only thing most of those five hundred Galilean workers are good for is menial , low-paying, hard labour like carrying materials, painting, and mixing cement. This is the reality of the level of our education in this country. Yet, all you Jack%^&*( jumping up about cementing some streets when there are no drains, and petrocaribe money which you think won’t end. We will pay dearly for that Petrocaribe money because neither PUP nor UDP can really explain it to you and Dean continues to prey on the ignorance and illiteracy of the ghetto masses he encourages in their criminal acts . While these thugs continue to hustle off this government and kill each other, Dean and his family befriended.
Better prepared or not the company should be made to show via documentation that they have made an effort to fill all vacancies with Belizeans before they are allowed to from outside the country.
First: they should be made to advertise the positions with a specific job description.
Second: they should be made to document who applied for better paying positions
Third: should show their education and experience.
Fourth: they should be made to explain why they did not hire them.
I find it hard to believe that there are no Belizeans in Belize to fill the better paying jobs! Belizeans leave Belize and travel abroad and they are able to fill prominent positions in developed countries. Have them prove it! if they do then and only then should they be allowed to hire from outside the country.
Oh but then again this might only be distasteful but not illegal! We need elected officials who will make these demands for its people.