Amendment to labour law proposed for increased severance pay
People who become unemployed after ten consecutive years on the job with the same employer may be entitled to double the money in severance pay. That’s the good news, the down side is that should this become law, it will not be retroactive. Discussions between the National Trade Union Congress of Belize and the Belize Chamber of Commerce and Industry have resulted in a compromise amendment to the Labour Laws. Commissioner, Ivan Williams, explained what the proposed legislation means if and when it becomes applicable.
Via Phone: Ivan Williams, Labour Commissioner
“The public needs to know that it is not yet law but what the proposal is to increase the severance pay from the current one week to two weeks per year after ten years of continuous service. The date when it comes into law is very important. If the law is passed today for example and you now have ten years, this is now the recommendation, the subsequent year which means now you have ten years, the law is passed today, the eleventh year, the twelfth year that’s when it goes to two weeks. So the year after the passage of the law that’s when it starts to accrue. Not before because the suggestion is that it’s not retroactive. So if you have ten years right now with Channel Five and the law is passed today and you continue to work, and you work for another five years, and you are terminated by the employer or you resign or so—you’re not dismissed because dismissal has a whole different issue. You have fifteen years employment and ten of those years are under the old law and five under the new law, then there’ll be a combination of one week and two weeks because the one week will still continue to apply under the old law prior to and then the two weeks will apply after the passage of the new law. That is the recommendation that has been put forward. The important thing that I am trying to clarify with the public is that there is this perception out there that the law has been passed already and there are people who are demanding that their employers pay the new provision, which is not yet law.”
Cabinet will have to vote on the proposed legislation in the House before it can become law.
