Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Former BWS Employees

In February of 2013, six Belize Water Services employees were terminated for redundancy, or at least that was the official company story. Those employees claimed that it was victimization, though, and took the company to Court for wrongful termination. It took more than two and a half years, but today Mark Menzies, Don Gillett, Michael Novelo, Journett McKoy, Charlette Barnett and Colin Morrison were all vindicated after Justice Michelle Arana found that they were indeed unfairly terminated. Attorney Said Musa, representing claimant Mark Menzies, explained the judgment of the Court.

Said Musa, Attorney for Mark Menzies

“They’ve been waiting over two years now since they were all terminated from their service. They’ve been very patient. They all gave their testimony in Court and we expected the outcome today. I’m very happy for them because BWS treated them very badly. They were being wrongfully accused of being involved with some scandalous letter that was being circulated in the office at the time, and there was absolutely no proof of any of them being involved, whereas the C.E.O. of the company actually went on record pointing out that action would be taken against those people, and they were the victims of this whole thing.”

Said Musa

Reporter

“What can be expected as redress? Do we expect that they would be returned to their jobs?”

Said Musa

“No! In the law, service of an employee is one area in which the court is very loathed to have reinstatement of service. They would normally award compensation and damages, and that is what will happen in this case.”