Labour Department hosts regional conference

The public sector has been the object of numerous complaints for lack of professionalism and backlog of work but we hardly get to hear their side of the story. For the past two days, personnel from the Ministry of Labour have been looking at modernizing during a seminar at the Belize Biltmore Plaza. But while advice from the rest of the region, namely Central America, might help Belize move forward, Labour Commissioner Edney Bennett says some internal changes need to take place.

Edney Bennett, Labour Commissioner

“The fact that we don’t have the resources to really adequately provide the services throughout the country, that’s one thing. Our laws are antiquated. The world is moving very swiftly and there are a lot of new problems which are coming up and we don’t have, our laws don’t adequately provide for the solution as to resolving these problems. With modern technology and having 1959 laws and that sort of thing, it’s like trying to look into the cave to solve modern technology.”

The department has received new equipment to provide up to date labour information and labour officers are being trained in conflict resolution and other aspects of labour disputes. The seminar was funded by the Foundation of Foreign Service for Peace and Democracy, FUNPADEM, and USAID.