ComPol Asks Employers to Be Socially Responsible

Chester Williams

Commissioner of Police Chester Williams took to social media over the weekend and expressed concerns over what can only be deemed as irresponsibility on the part of employers who, despite having COVID-positive persons among their staff, have refused to send them home to isolate and, in some cases, to quarantine.  Now by law, any of those employees would be in breach of the quarantine regulation, but Williams says that they cannot prosecute because the department understands that the employee is being forced to go to work.  The ComPol says that employees are in a tough spot and since there is no law preventing employers from doing otherwise, the police cannot intervene.  

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police

“It is the law that once it is that you have tested positive for COVID-19, you need to isolate yourself from others.  It is also the law that once you have been swabbed and are awaiting results, you are to be in quarantine pending your results. And we would anticipate that any responsible employer would want to ensure that an employee who is infected or who is potentially infected would not be at work to further infect further employees or to put other employees at risk.  I want to take away from what I saw Doctor Musa had said, where he said that it must be out personal and individual responsibility to ensure that we protect not only ourselves, but those around us and more so the vulnerable in order for us to curb this COVID-19 pandemic in Belize. And so I want to call upon employers to ensure that they abide by the law. It is a pity that there is nothing in law to hold the employers accountable when they refuse to send employees to go and either quarantine or isolate. But I am going to speak to the Minister of Health and whenever another regulation is passed that they would take that into consideration; that we can make it an offense for an employer who refuses to have an employee either quarantine or isolate themselves once they have undergone the swabbing or have tested positive for COVID-19.”