And one subject that did not escape comment in the House today was the allegation of language discrimination at the First Caribbean International Bank. As has been widely reported, the Bank has been condemned because a senior staffer Uwahnie Martinez alleges tat she was scolded for talking to a customer in Garifuna. She is one of two Garifuna employees at the Dangriga branch of the Bank and other reportedly has also filed a grievance with the Christian Workers Union.
Today the Area Representative for Dangriga named that other long time employee:..
Hon. Ivan Ramos, Dangriga
"It was not the employee that started the conversation. It was the customer and so the employee basically responded in Garifuna. Mr. Simeon Joseph Jr. has been with the bank from the time of Barclay's Bank for 32 years. A respected gentleman, an intelligent and productive gentleman, one that has the admiration of the Garifuna community and I believe by extension of Belize because he has also worked at other branches. Uwahnie Martinez, a Garifuna woman again concern with the same issue. She was born in Hopkins, she is a Garifuna. Her first language is Garifuna, so to be told that she cannot speak Garifuna in the bank, this is unacceptable and I come here today to ask this honorable house to reaffirm then to the Belizean people and to all of us that discrimination will not be tolerated anywhere in this country."
Prime Minister Dean Barrow
"I would have hoped that it wasn't so that the bank did not in fact do what it is accused of doing, because if it did what it was accused of doing, that's absolutely intolerable. Not to be countenance, I associate myself completely with what the member for Dangriga said this afternoon in the house."
First Caribbean Headquarters is reportedly sending a senior executive to Belize to have discussions with the Garifuna leadership.
Email
Print