Godfrey Smith explains the merits of the Telemedia Employees Trust

godfrey smith

The Court of Appeal today made a decision on the case of the Belize Telemedia Employees Trust versus the Government of Belize.  The case was brought about after the Barrow administration compulsorily acquired B.T.L. last August. Trustees representing the Employees Trust, Dean Boyce and Keith Arnold, initially took the case to the Supreme Court challenging the constitutionality of the acquisition.   The government and the new Telemedia Board opposed the challenge on grounds that the Trust did not exist and asked the Supreme Court to rule on it. The Supreme Court agreed, but the Court of Appeal overturned that ruling. News Five sat down today with the Attorney for the Employees Trust, Godfrey Smith, who explains the legal aspects of the case and the repercussions.

Godfrey Smith, Attorney for Employees Trust

“The government and the new Board of directors of B.T.L. immediately opposed it and said no Trust exists, it’s not valid, it’s a rouse. Nobody has seen any trust document and they asked the Supreme Court to knock it down on that basis. The Supreme Court, Mister Justice Legal agreed there was no valid trust. We knowing that it was valid of course appealed; and the decision of the Court of Appeal today put paid to all that nonsense being spoken by the government and the new board of directors of B.T.L. that no trust exist. So, put very simply, the decision of the new Court of Appeal is that there exists a valid B.T.L. employees trust. It existed from 2005, there is written document which identifies the employees of B.T.L. as the beneficiaries, those beneficiaries have certain rights, which can be enforced and therefore, they have an immediate and direct stake in the outcome of the case, currently before the Supreme Court about the constitutionality of the acquisition. So basically, if the Court decides that the shares go back to all the shareholders as it existed prior to the acquisition, it means that the B.T.L. employees have roughly a twenty three percent stake shareholding in the company. If , we are unsuccessful and the court says no, no, it was properly acquired, compensation was involved   then similarly the B.T.L. employees as we have always maintained have a state in that compensation package. The employees will have to decide how they are going to position themselves, how they are gonna approach the fact that the Court of Appeal has declared that the trust exist. If the trust exists it means that there is a set of beneficiaries, if there is a set of beneficiaries it means that they have certain rights, which can be exercised. So they now have to get very serious in my opinion, and decide as a collective, how they wish to be involved in both the case that’s ongoing and how they gonna position themselves in the aftermath of the case. Shortly after the government and the new board had said well, there is no trust, it’s a rouse, and it’s bogus. I had written a letter to Mister Mark Gladden, the president of the of the B.T.L. communications workers union, inviting him to a meeting to discuss how the people he represented, who are employees of B.T.L., would position themselves in relation to the claim.”

Marion Ali

“Have you gotten?”

Godfrey Smith

“At this point, no, but I’m hoping that with this definitive declaration judgment, coming out of the Court of Appeal putting to rest any question about the existence of this trust  and with benefits that the workers will be imbued with more confidence.”