The labour unions pushed government to table the Occupational Health and Safety Bill in the House of Representatives in December, and they did in January. But, government did so with a great deal of reservation, because of the sweeping and costly reforms it would impose on businesses.
Well now the public consultations on the bill have started led by the Public service labour industry and trade committee. The first sessions is being held right now at the Chateau with representatives from the business sector. Daniel Guttierez, the councilor for the Chamber explained the perils that the business community sees in the OHS bill:..
Daniel Guttierez
"The business community does want to ensure that our people are protected. There should be no doubt that that is important to us. However, we also want to be emphatic that we strongly believe that the current legislation as it is proposed is going to hurt jobs and is going to caused Belizeans to lose their jobs in the long run and therefore it iss not good for the Belizean worker in the long run. While we want our people not to be exposed to unnecessary dangers I think it is important also underscore that` legislation should, not come in the way of creating jobs and this legislation we believe will do that. We would like to convince those who do not see where this can hurt them that this bill will caused problems to the economy and ultimately to the workers of this country. Immediately speaking, this bill is going to make life difficult for any number of small Belizean companies, but in the long I think it is important for parliamentarians here present to understand that this is going to hurt the Belizean economy and that cannot be good for absolutely for anyone."
The consultations will canvass a wide cross section of the community.
Email
Print