M.O.E. Meets with B.N.T.U.; Is a Resolution on the Horizon?

Francis Fonseca

On Friday, the Ministry of Education met with the leadership of the Belize National Teachers Union. This was to discuss a collective bargaining agreement that had not been settled for fourteen years. During that meeting, several issues, including proposal twenty-two, which looks at pensions for teachers were also addressed. But is there a resolution on the horizon? Over the weekend, Education Minister Francis Fonseca told the media that a framework for moving forward has been established.

Francis Fonseca, Minister of Education

“We were discussing the outstanding issues and we generally agreed to a framework for us to move forward to resolving those outstanding issues. So we are going to gather some information and data and we are going to be meeting again the first week of April and at that time, we hope to come to a resolution of these outstanding matter with respect to the C.B.A.  Now, the joint unions as you know, the joint unions is the B.N.T.U., the P.S.U., the Public Service Union and the A.P.S.S.M., the association of managers, so that joint union, the JUNT, we will meet with them and that’s the government’s negotiating team which includes myself the deputy prime minister and the minister of the public service and the Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance, Coye. The four of us will meet with them on February fifteenth and at that meeting, then we will discuss the issues you are talking about – the increments and these other matters – and we hope to arrive on some common ground on the fifteenth. We can then take that back to the cabinet and the prime minister for further discussion and decision making.”