Port employee fired for dreadlocks
Getting a job, particularly one you like, is not always an easy task. So why did one employee of the Port Authority allow himself to be fired, just because of his hairstyle? We’ll let him tell it.
Frank Aviella, Terminated from Belize Ports Authority
“It’s kind of bias you know. I say probably…I noh put it as no racism, because dah a white man fire a black man. I just look on it as like maybe he doing his job or something. But I look at it like he di bring down me, both my family and whereby I talk to him in all kind ah form, but he noh understand me. All he say is if I prefer my dreadlocks or my religion more than my family, yuh fired.”
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
Thirty-seven year old Rastafarian Frank Aviella says for the nine years he has been working at the Belize Ports Authority, the company did not have a problem with his hairstyle…that is until May of this year when he was approached by Ports Commissioner, Andy Suddes.
Frank Aviella
“About the fifteenth of May, he tell me about we bring up a new dress code and I am requesting for you to cut your hair to match the uniform. And I tell the man that from the time you say that to me, you disrespect my religion, so I noh deh pan that. He say, okay, so be the case we will look forward next and the next it will be on the second of June and he said on the second of June, I terminate your service, you are fired.”
“All the while I have been wearing locks at the Port, but that time I was working at the Cayes. For the past eight years and nine months I was working at the cayes and for the three months, they brought me over to the marine section. And after completing the three months, they request to me; if you no cut your dreadlocks you are fired.”
News 5 tried to contact the Ports Commissioner, but was told that Mister Suddes was out of office. But we did manage to get a copy of the termination letter.
The letter dated June second and signed by Andy Suddes, reads: “The Authority has tried in every possible way to reach a mutually satisfactory agreement with you in regards to the grooming of your appearance, but to no avail. You were transferred from the Lighthouse Keepers position, at your request to work as a Parole and Enforcement Deckhand, which places you in direct contact with the public. One of the major priorities handed down by the Board of Directors is for all staff to maintain a professional image at all times and it was explained to you that your “dreadlocks” directly contravenes the regulations pertaining to dress code with regards to uniforms. In an attempt to satisfy your needs, the Authority offered to reassign you to Bugles Caye Lighthouse Station, but you have refused the offer. We are therefore, left with no other option than to terminate your employment with the Belize Ports Authority.”
No one at the Labour Department would talk to us on camera, but did tell us that there are no unfair termination laws in Belize and that an employer does not need to have a reason to terminate an employee. However, whenever a person is fired and has been working at an establishment for more than five years he or she is entitled to payments for severance, notice, vacation and whatever other wages due. The department would not discuss Aviella’s termination letter, but said if the employee believes his constitutional rights have been violated, then he would need to take up that matter with the court. Jacqueline Woods for News 5.
When contacted by News 5, Ports Authority chairman, Fred Hunter Senior, denied the allegations, but declined to offer details.
