Elena Smith on Reinstated Allowances for C.E.O.’s, “it is not fair”

Elena Smith

The Belize National Teachers Union has polled its membership to get their thoughts on the recent reinstatement of living and entertainment allowances for government C.E.O.’s. All those responses have been gathered, and while president of the union, Elena Smith, says recent weather events prevented her from going through the data, she is of the view that the reinstated allowances is unfair to teachers. On Monday, she told reporters that teachers continue to suffer and will incur additional out-of-pocket expenses due to damages caused by Hurricane Lisa.

Elena Smith, President, B.N.T.U.

“I have not been able to go through that as yet. We haven’t even discussed what the results of the poll are. But, we are looking at it very soon. But, I am sure you would understand that our teachers are not happy. We have lost salary. We have lost increments. We are still without increments and here you have these special persons being given double what they are getting, and here you have teachers suffering, because they continue to suffer and they have to use their same salaries now to fix the class again because no ministry will come and give them supplies. The management won’t give those supplies because they will tell you that they don’t have it. But, they will expect that the classroom is going to be in a state that is conducive to learning and that will be welcoming to these children. So, we have to go and spend out of pocket again to replace the things we lost due to the hurricane. So, that shows you that we have been sacrificing over and over and over yet we can’t get back our increments. Yet these persons can get these huge increases, it’s not fair.”