B.W.S.L. and BWSWU Finalize New Collective Bargaining Agreement

On Tuesday, the Belize Water Services Limited and the Belize Water Services Workers Union signed a Memorandum of Understanding to implement a newly revised Collective Bargaining Agreement. The last C.B.A. expired on November 1st, 2021, and the Labor Department needs to validate the C.B.A. before an official signing can be done. The final draft has already been sent to the Labor Department for proofreading. In the meantime, the M.O.U. guarantees B.W.S.L.’s employees the benefits outlined in the re-negotiated C.B.A. Haydon Brown, the Human Resource Manager at B.W.S.L. told us more via Zoom.

Haydon Brown

Haydon Brown, Human Resource Manager, B.W.S.L.

“Normally, at least in our case, once manage and union would come to an agreement we would, as we have done right now, we would sign an M.O.U. basically to effect the changes that we have agreed with the union in principle. Well, we agreed. Then we then forward our C.B.A. with the changes to the Labor Department so that they, what they reference as a proof reading, to ensure that the document meets labor standards by their regulations. And not to allow the employees to benefit from what we agreed, we sign the M.O.U. so that the company and the employees can enjoy the benefits already agreed. We are not agreeing with the union this new C.B.A. to be effective April first 2022. We still need to send the document to the Labor Department for their proof reading. When they are completed that the three parties will come together and have a signing somewhere down the road whenever that document is verified. What we have looked at are things better than the law. What we are offering our employees is better than what is in the law. So, the law would not interfere because as long an employee is getting better than law, there wouldn’t be an issue.”