29 employees lose jobs as Bellevue closed down
Its dimly lit tavern has been the venue of choice for three generations of courting Belizeans and more recently the newly opened King Street Station was home to Karaoke TV. But as of today neither the bar, the restaurant nor any other part of the Bellevue Hotel was open for business. A Supreme Court order had removed the venerable establishment on Belize City’s Southern Foreshore from the hands of the Dinger family and returned it to the legal ownership of the Social Security Board. When employees arrived at work this morning, which happened to be a pay-day, they discovered that they had no job, no paycheque…and no explanation.
Marsha Tucker, Unemployed
“Well we work at the Bellevue, I came to work this morning and they said “no job.” And why? Because, they come in and closed down the place, security, police, everything. We don’t really know what’s is going on. We want to know.”
Jose Sanchez
“You worked two weeks already, have you received pay?”
Marsha Tucker
“Well not yet. Today is supposed to be pay-day. We want to know what happened, how can they close down the place and don’t give any kind of notice, they don’t say nothing.”
Jose Sanchez
“The workers say that you are from the Supreme Court and you closed the place down why has that happened?”
(man walks away and asks officer for help)
Jose Sanchez
“I am not doing anything wrong. ”
Police Officer
“You are harassing the man.”
Jose Sanchez
“I am not harassing the man, I am doing my job and he is here in an official capacity.”
Bernard Bahadur, Unemployed
“This is the same attitude we got this morning from that same guy and some of us are here for thirty-three years and have family. We have our severance pay to get, we finished worked two weeks, yesterday we finished worked and today we should get our pay but nobody tell us anything. They tell us to get out of the place and that’s it.”
Jose Sanchez
“That’s what the same gentleman told you?”
Bernard Bahadur
“Yes.”
Jose Sanchez
“Did he say who he was or who he represents?”
Bernard Bahadur
“Well he presented a paper there from Social Security. It wasn’t my business to read that anyway. That’s not my business. We weren’t informed about anything the whole thing is wrong, totally wrong.”
Our efforts to reach Bellevue boss Roger Dinger were unsuccessful as he was said to be at St. George’s Caye. However, lawyer for the Social Security Board, Michel Chebat, explained that the property is owned by S.S.B. and leased to Dinger Enterprises. He said that Dinger has not paid rent since January and the Board initiated an action to recover in the Supreme Court. That action was successful and his client was granted a writ of possession, which was executed today. While Chebat could not say what would be done with the hotel, he did say that as of today it was closed. The twenty-nine employees who work for Dinger Enterprises will have to settle their claims with that company.
