Fired employees of BWS demand settlement for unlawful dismissal

Don Gillett

Since their dismissal from the Belize Water Services Ltd. in early February, a group of five former employees, including Don Gillett, Colin Morrison, Charlette Barnett, Michael Novelo and Journett McKoy, has proceeded with legal action against the company.  The lawsuit is the result of what they strongly believe is an act of wrongful termination since their release did not follow due process.  According to an agreement struck between BWSL and its workers union, the employees should have been given prior notice that their posts were being made redundant.  The firings, says Gillett, were not only a blatant act of union busting but they were summarily let go before an internal investigation into the dissemination of a malicious newsletter was concluded.  This morning, they gave the media an update on the ongoing proceedings.

Don Gillett, Former Employee, BWSL

“Our terminations were unfair and unlawful.  The company is trying to cover the unfairness and unlawfulness of what they did by saying our terminations were done because of redundancy due to restructuring of B.W.S.  The company did not follow the law or the Collective Bargaining Agreement on redundancy.  Besides this, the company put out a memo admitting that the terminations were not because of redundancy but because of the investigations into scandalous letters that have been circulated in the company.  The company C.E.O. Alvan Haynes told the court in his statement that he misrepresented the reason for the terminations in the memo to the other employees.  The company has shown itself to be dishonest in its actions thus far.  The judge has advised both parties for a third time to iron out a settlement if no agreement is reached by the next court date, then the case will be tried in which instance we are ready to see the process through to the end.  We are in for the long haul and have nothing to hide.”