The Realities of the Wage Bill?
Luke Martinez
Since February, discussions have been held with the joint unions leading up to the budget presentation. But that has not ended well. Today, a reserved N.T.U.C.B. president Luke Martinez says that there are areas where the wage bill can be cut, while P.S.U. Vice President Dean Flowers says the G.O.B. is not being truthful about the wage bill in its presentation.
Luke Martinez, President, N.T.U.C.B.
“It’s a fact that we have people who have passed the retirement age and they are still in the system, we have retirees who are on contract. They have overburdened the system with open vote employment. The low-lying fruits are on the ground. When it comes to the public sector, we still see a lot of government vehicles on the road. Government vehicles are at some of these resorts during weekend, you see them packed up with river actions and you see them going to the river with government assets. This afternoon when you go for lunch, you will see government vehicle doing private business. At some point and we would have expected by now that they would have put a grip on that specific wastage. The continuous employment. While there was a moratorium on hiring which was supposed to have ended on the thirty-first of March….mein this is why we are here.”
Dean Flowers
Dean Flowers, 1st Vice President, P.S.U.
“At the proposed budget estimates and you will see that eighty-three cents is not allocated to salaries. It is thirty-six cents. And based on the projected outturn for the last fiscal year, it would be fifty-one cents. We have to stop misleading the Belizean people for political mileage. If you look at the proposed 2021/2022 budget, you will see that the allocation for personal emoluments is under fifty percent. I haven’t done an extensive review of the 2021/2022 budget, but I am calling on the government to stop the lies and stop attacking the union as if we are the opposition.”
