But what about their jobs? After all, that's what started this whole thing in the first place! Well, seems "Daddy Dean" has cooked up a solution to that too….
Prime Minister Dean Barrow hosted a press conference at 4:00 this afternoon to outline how his Administration would intervene into the BML/City Hall dispute to make things right going forward.
Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"An understanding was reached between government and B.M.L and between the Belize City council and B.M.L. Yesterday evening after I became aware of the details of the situation that saw the B.M.L engage in their protest action and after I had been acquainted back and forth between the Belize City council and B.M.L. I got in touch with Mr. Ellis who's the owner/manager of B.M.L and arranged for my representative in the person of economics affairs ambassador Mark Espat to sit with Mr. Ellis; to try and agree on the contours of the intervention that I have told Mr. Ellis government was prepared to make. Mr. Ellis and ambassador Espat did meet and that meeting resulted later on in the issuing of a letter on the part of the Government of Belize to Mr. Lawrence Ellis and Belize Maintenance Limited. What that letter does and I can read it in full for you if that appears to be necessary. But in effect what the letter does is to commit the government of Belize to pay the weekly salary of the B.M.L workers. Government will do this right through to the end of the contract between B.M.L and the Belize City council. So we will assume the obligations of the Belize City council. Government has done this of course because there's no way we could not act in the face of a situation that saw workers either been having laid off or about to be laid off. For us this is not political, this is a matter of philosophical and deeply held conviction on the part of this government. I'm not going to comment in any judgmental way on the circumstances that produced a situation in which workers were either laid off or were in danger of being laid off; But this government knew, I certainly knew that we would have to find the money to ensure that these workers could continue being paid, well in fact employ the workers who's employment with B.M.L will of course come to an end if B.M.L no longer have the job of work that the contract provides for. So the commitment on the part of government is to pay the salaries through January 18th, whenever the contract expires and the city council in turn is committing to employing those workers to having them transition to the status of Belize City council employees. I spoke to senior super intendant Broaster, with respect to the charges that have already been proffered in some cases against the workers and he in term spoke to his superiors and the charging officer. There were some arraignments of workers on charges having to do with illegal assembly that had already taken place by the time I intervened with Mr. Broaster this morning. There were others to be arraigned today, as a consequence of our discussion and agreement those were not proceeded with, so we're only dealing with the 22 who were first arraigned yesterday, I believe their matter was adjourned to the 6th and 7th of October, 2014. As I said the others that were to be arraigned there was no lodging of the charges, so the assurance is that those charges will not now be lodged and so they don't have to worry. With respect to the first 22, the police will withdraw those charges, will indicate to the court it will not proceed with any prosecution of those charges."
It is important to stress that the intervention from the Ministry of Finance will only cover a portion of the City Council's weekly bill to Belize Maintenance Limited. Central Government will only be paying $35,000 weekly for wages and wage related costs for the workers employed by BML. The City Council will have to find the rest. They will also be hired by the Belize City Council when the contract expires in January 2015.
Also, of important note is that Sr. Superintendent Broaster consulted with other officers from the Eastern Division's High Command, and the decision was taken that after careful reconsideration, the workers who took part in the illegal protest should not continue to face criminal charges. That's after the Prime Minister made an intervention, and so after the press conference, we asked Broaster in a side-bar if he couldn't have exercised that leniency in the first instance. Here's what he said:
Edward Broaster - Senior Superintendent
"The prime minister asked us to reconsider the charges on the individuals. Nevertheless, we sat down as a management team and decided that we will reconsider and we will discontinue the charges after we were requested to reconsider."
Daniel Ortiz
"But sir couldn't that decision from the police high command happen before the prime minister decided that he would make an intervention?"
Edward Broaster
"I would not agree with your comment at this time because when I went out there and I cautioned the people, I cautioned them 3 times. While we were not aware of any intelligence that this action would have taken place in front of the city council, we quickly got intelligence that when they left in front of the city council they were heading to Albert Street to do the same thing, hence the reason why we diverted them from going across the swing bridge into queen street and into the compound. We have to realize that we are the keepers of the law and when the law is broken, yes we have that ability to utilize our discretion and what have you but that discretion was exercised on the ground and we gave them ample opportunities to leave the area, pick up their garbage and they refuse to do that."
So, as the criminal matters, the 22 who were arraigned yesterday, when their case goes back to court on October 6 and 7, the police prosecutors in charge of their cases will make a formal application before the sitting magistrates to withdraw the charge of taking part in an unlawful gathering. The others who were to be arraigned today, though they were formally charged, the cases will not be lodged at court, and they will be withdrawn.
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