SAN PEDRO DAILY, September 7, 2007,Belize,News,Features,Newspapers,Information,Resource,Caribbean,Ambergris Caye

Minister: labour law is silent on disaster responsibilities

Life may be returning to normal for most Belizeans following the close call with Hurricane Felix, but some confusion and even bitterness remains in the often fragile relationship between labour and management. The question involves rights and obligations in the time before and after a natural disaster.
Francis Fonseca, Labour Minister
“As it now stands Marion, the only provision under the law that deals with an act of God which results in the frustration of employment is section 32 of the Labour Act. Under that section of the law where employment is frustrated as a result of an act of God, such as a hurricane that we have just experienced there is no obligation on employers to pay employees as a result of that act of God. The whole rationale for that of course is that in a time of disaster, in a natural disaster, employers and employees can suffer. We have the example in Corozal of the Fruta Bomba, for example, where the entire industry has fallen prey to disaster and they’re not able to function. So if there were a requirement that they should continue to pay their workers that would be simply impossible for them to meet that requirement. So the law tries to provide some balance, in the sense that it is not placing a burden on either the employer or the employee. Now we understand obviously that that has created some challenges for employees, and that is why the government has worked with the Social Security Board for example, to activate the unemployment benefits under the Social Security Act, that Scheme and that fund and I think that is working fairly well. That is a short-term remedy for people who have lost employment. As it relates to time off, the law is completely silent on that issue. And the point I should make overall is that I think this is a whole area of the law that we need to look at very carefully. In fact we have started a discussion with NEMO on this very issue some time ago, understanding that it is an area of the law that we need to perhaps revise, review, and come up with specific recommendations that we can then consult on with the private sector and with the labour unions so that we can come up with the proper remedy for these situations where there is great uncertainty.”
“Obviously the discretion that employers exercise is very important. We’ve heard complaints of some employers demanding that workers be at work or stay at work during the hurricane. Obviously that is completely unacceptable and there is a scope for that kind of matter to be brought to the attention of the Labour Department so that we can sit down with those employers and ensure that in the future that does not happen again, that in the future they do act reasonably when they are faced with this type of disaster. So I think we learned from these lessons. We’ve heard the complaints from the people, and so we need to put in place— we have to strengthen the law, make it more responsive to the needs of our people, especially our workers, and at the same time have a proper conversation with employers so that we can arrive at some consensus on a way forward with this issue.”
Fonseca says it should take at least two months to formulate more appropriate legislation governing labour issues in the face of a hurricane. Read More

BATSUB Grounds Helicopters Following Yesterday's Crash

All BATSUB helicopters are grounded tonight after a huey crashed yesterday in an un-inhabited area south of the Maxboro housing community. As we reported, two pilots were on board and they were doing landing drills in an empty shrimp pond on the Nova Farms Compound. Eyewitnesses say the nose of the bell 212 dipped too much forward, and its blades touched the ground. That caused the helicopter to fall to the ground and burst into flames. Both pilots escaped without any serious injury.
Commanding Officer for BATSUB in Belize Lt. Col. Peter Germaine confirmed that the helicopter started service in Belize in 2003. BATSUB has two others: one is working, but grounded as a precaution, and another is undergoing maintenance.
Because the copters are so widely relied upon for training British and BDF Forces, and mostly for emergency medical evacuations, Lt. Col. Germaine says the working one should be cleared tomorrow, and they will try to get the other and working by next week. Read More

Conservation group makes
major relief donation

It’s a newly formed umbrella organisation that deals with the management of our nation’s protected areas: not the kind of group that immediately comes to mind in wake of a hurricane. But the folks at APAMO today delivered ... in a very big way.

Janelle Chanona, Reporting
While many of the assessments of Hurricane Dean’s damage have focused on the impact on homes and farms, the Association of Protected Areas Management Organizations is tonight voicing concern about the storm’s after effects to the country’s natural resources.
Edilberto Romero, Chair, APAMO
“Our rapid assessment has been that the impact on the marine environment has been not too significant, in the forest there has been a little more significant but again the forest can recover. But if the people’s needs are not attended to their impact would be even greater than what the hurricane did on the environment, so it only makes sense to deal with the emergency human needs at this point.”
With that in mind, APAMO teamed up with its financial backer, the Oak Foundation, to contribute two hundred thousand Belize dollars to the Red Cross to assist in relief efforts.
According to the society’s Disaster Management Committee Chairman Kevin Castillo, so far the Red Cross has distributed food packages to five hundred families but today’s donation should enable them to help an additional four hundred families in the villages of Chunox, Copperbank and Sarteneja.
Kevin Castillo, Chairman, Disaster Management Committee, Belize Red Cross
“Understand that we provide provisions for a family of five for two weeks at a time, so that we are just about at the end of the first two weeks and then supplies for the other two weeks is about to go out.”
“It covers the very basic things: rice, beans, flour, oil, salt, baking powder. Basically, things that people will need to live for the next two weeks.”
According to the Red Cross, cash and in-kind contributions from the Belizean community have been overwhelming. But officials stress that their efforts are to support the most vulnerable storm victims.
Kevin Castillo
“It’s not a blanket distribution and we are unable to distribute to everybody, although we’d like to do that, we are unable so to do. It is those people who are really in need that we really provide the relief supplies for. And so I would like them to understand that whenever we do what we do, it is because we get an assessment done to ensure that those people are really in need and thereafter we go ahead and provide that relief.”
While the Red Cross is one of the first to response to a disaster, the organization has also been involved in community disaster preparedness. According to Red Cross President Karen Diaz, the idea is to help residents be resilient to threats by identifying vulnerabilities. In the latest program, over a ten month period volunteers will share construction tips for homes and teach people how to protect food and water sources before disaster strikes.
Karen Diaz, President, Red Cross Belize
“The cost of a response far outweighs the cost of being prepared and reducing those risks. Over the years we can see that we are more prepared, we have a lot less loss of life and property in Belize than we did in let’s say in 1961 when Hurricane Hattie hit us. Because people now know you must be prepared, you must listen to the warnings, must have your food ready to go into the shelters, so we are much better prepared.”
And while the Red Cross is concentrating on risk reduction, APAMO used today’s ceremony to highlight the need for natural resource preparedness to be incorporated into the national hurricane plan.
Edilberto Romero
“The natural resources should be included in that planning, especially the mangroves and the Belize cayes should not be cleared up completely just for development because the impact of the hurricane is greater and it’s even greater in local communities like Sarteneja, Chunox and Copperbank.
APAMO is made up of eighteen members who supervise twenty-five percent of national lands classified as protected areas. Meanwhile, Red Cross officials say they stand ready to dispatch volunteer teams to the south should flooding concerns materialize. Read More

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