B.P.P.’s Maheia Says Faber Has Been Wasteful; Must Resign
Separate press releases from the Belize Territorial Volunteers and Belize Progressive Party this evening condemned the Government’s decision to spend a million dollars of taxpayers’ monies as an Easter “reward” to teachers who stayed in the classroom in October of 2016 rather than join the Belize National Teachers’ Union on strike. Both parties called the action “union-busting” and say it is undeserved and a further wastage committed by the Minister of Education, Deputy Prime Minister Patrick Faber, following the infamous Corozal ‘pibil party’ and his Government vehicle being stolen and dumped in the sea. BTV leader and B.P.P. deputy leader, Wil Maheia, says Faber must resign – or else stop misspending the monies.
On the Phone: Wil Maheia, B.P.P. Deputy Leader
“This is just a blatant disregard, disrespect for the teachers, who sacrificed to make good changes in this country.”
Reporter
“At this point it appears that the money is going to go through; it appears that, as Mr. Faber said last week, that he doesn’t want to be engaged in any back and forth with anybody on this – he feels that these teachers that did not strike ought to be rewarded for what they did; to him it doesn’t seem to be anything against those who did go on strike, but these teachers made their own sacrifice, if you will. That’s how he’s putting it.”
On the Phone: Wil Maheia
“My message to the Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister – if he’s using his own personal funds, then I don’t have a problem with that; but when he’s using taxpayer’s monies then I have a problem with that, because at the end of the day we are all taxpayers, and we all pay our taxes, and he cannot just take taxpayers’ money and spend it how he feels like spending it. And it’s a form of union-busting – in any other place in the world, he would basically be called out and as Belizeans I think we have a right to call him out for union-busting. This is blatant union-busting, in our opinion.”
Maheia says it should not be left simply to the unions and activist organization to stand up for Belize and added that in the case of the Corozal ‘pibil party’ and other Government misspending, we all have to pay the money back, not just a select few. The B.P.P. pointed to the systemic and institutional nature of negligence caused by Governments of both parties and demanded that both sides stop their games and put the nation as its number one priority.
I believe that the term ‘reward’ is a wrong one. I am a teacher who did not participate in the strike action. First of all, I am not a member of the BNTU. Secondly, I believe that it was a case of the ‘wrong dog barking at the tree’. I showed up to work for the 11 days of the strike action. I returned to work on January 3, as requested by my employer, the managing authority. I am presently in school ‘making up’ for a time that I did not lose. Now, do the math, I will be working for 21 days while those who participated in the strike action will do 6 days. In other words, I will be doing 15 days more than the others.
Now, remember, the strike action was for 11 days. All the teachers are required to give back is 6 days to complete the 180 days required for the school year. At the end of the school year in July, they will have completed the 180 required days, while others will have completed 201 days. Tell me, is the money given to the teachers a reward? Of course not, we have earned it. In any job you do, you will be paid overtime.
Now, you are claiming that the government is wasting tax payer’s money. What about the salaries that were paid to teachers who did not work in October? Where on earth do you get paid when you do not show up to work? Why don’t you suggest to the government to deduct salaries from those teachers to pay teachers who did overtime? Or, why don’t you suggest to Luke Palacio that instead of asking teachers not to accept the million, to instead advice its members to return part of the October salary which they received without earning it? Or better yet, why don’t you suggest to the PUP and the BPP to subsidize the salaries of teachers for giving them a free ride?