Strike deadline extended in B.T.L. labour dispute
If you were anticipating a labour strike in the local telecommunications industry today, you can relax because it didn’t happen. Turns out a technicality has pushed any plans for industrial action against B.T.L. to March fifth. According to executives of the Belize Communication Workers Union, talks with the company and Minister of Labour will continue and if the new deadline arrives before a solution can be hammered out, an arbitration clause will kick in, meaning both sides will be bound by the decision of the arbitration panel. And that mediation might very well become necessary because as late as Wednesday, B.T.L.’s Dean Boyce wrote a letter to Minister of Labour Francis Fonseca, maintaining that the company does not view the current state of affairs as a trade dispute. This morning, Fonseca offered his analysis of the situation.
Francis Fonseca, Minister of Labour
“We have had several meetings over the last few days and I believe those meetings have been very productive, very positive. In particular, our meeting last evening I think was very, very useful. At the end of that meeting we agreed that—as you know the union, the Belize Communication Workers Union had filed a notice of industrial action with me in my capacity as Minister of Labour on February second. I responded to that notice by indicating to them that it was important for them to do two things: one, to exhaust all of the procedures available under the M.O.U. and the collective bargaining agreement that they had with B.T.L.; and two, that they should set out very specifically for me what the terms and elements of the trade dispute was, which they were purporting to act under. They responded to that on February twelfth by providing a detailed break down of what they determined to be the elements of the trade dispute.
So at our meeting last evening we agreed that it was at that time on February twelfth that the notice of industrial action actually started running that means that the twenty one days will not expire until March fifth, March fifth and not tomorrow like many others have been saying. It expires on March fifth. We are very, very hopeful, very optimistic that between now and then that we will be able to resolve this matter around the table because I think we have made several important advances in that regard.
But failing a resolution of the matter before March Fifth, then one of the requirements under the law, options available under the law to the Ministry of Labour, is to convene an arbitration tribunal, an arbitrational tribunal which will resolve this matter. That arbitration tribunal is comprised of three members appointed by the Minister of Labour, one of whom is the chairperson of the tribunal, one person appointed by the union, and one person appointed by the company. So five members, and those five members who make up the arbitration tribunal will then sit down and determined their terms of reference, the procedure, and within twenty-one days—unless there are exceptional circumstances, they can go beyond twenty-one days—within twenty-one days that arbitration tribunal will make a final and binding decision as it relates to this matter. So all the parties have agreed that we will make every effort to resolve this matter around the table before March fifth, failing that then the Minister of Labour will have to act and as I said convene this arbitration tribunal and the decision of that arbitration tribunal will be final and binding on all parties to this alleged or purported trade dispute.”
“At the end of the twenty-one days notice period, if no action is taken by the Minister of Labour then the workers are legally entitled to strike. If an arbitration panel is convened, then immediately the notice of strike action comes to an end and it will be unlawful for any worker to strike if an arbitration panel is convened. That arbitration panel will then have to do its work and as I said the finals of that arbitration tribunal will be final and binding on all parties.”
The arbitration panel would include a government appointee as chair, while the company and union would each name two delegates to represent their interests.
