PSU meets in Cayo, possible industrial action high on the agenda

Members of the Public Service Union (PSU) in Cayo today met at Hode’s Place in San Ignacio. While the specifics of today’s meeting in Cayo are unclear  for some time now, the leadership of the union has been publicly discussing Government’s position on several pieces of government policy and legislation. Most importantly, public officers have insisted they want their increments, which were frozen in 2021, to be reinstated in full. The meeting today comes in the wake of the report that hundreds of public officers did not report to work on Wednesday, primarily as a result of having fallen ill or unexpected emergencies having arisen. The departments severely affected include the Treasury Department, Magistrate Court, Ministry of Agriculture, Elections and Boundaries Department, Belize Tax Services Department, Ministry of Health and Wellness, Attorney General Ministry, Ministry of Infrastructure and Development, Ministry of Education, and Immigration Department. A release from the union says that while other departments and ministries also saw staff falling unexpectedly ill, these were not significantly impacted.