Belize Enacts New Occupational Safety and Health Law

After more than a decade of consultation and legislative review, the Occupational Safety and Health Act, 2026 has been enacted and gazetted. The new law replaces the outdated Factories Act and introduces modern safety standards for workplaces across Belize.  The Act establishes an Occupational Safety and Health Inspectorate and outlines responsibilities for employers and workers. It also provides workers with protection against retaliation for reporting unsafe conditions and the right to refuse work involving an imminent and serious threat.  When the legislation returned to the Senate on August 4, Private Sector Senator Kevin Herrera supported stronger workplace protections but called for clearer timelines to reopen businesses ordered closed over safety violations. He also sought safeguards to balance inspections involving domestic workers with the constitutional right to privacy inside private homes.

Kevin Herrera, Senator: “And then on the section 64 and 65, Madam President, clear statutory timelines for inspection and reopening. Section 64 gives Chief Inspector Authority to issue immediate closure notices where imminent danger exists. While emergency intervention is necessary to prevent injury, section 65 locks clear post closure timelines once the employer remedies the issue. If a business takes immediate corrective action to make its workplace safe it should not remain closed indefinitely waiting for an inspector to return. Every day of delay means lost revenues for the employer and lost wages for the workers. We call for statutory timelines that compel the inspector to re-inspect a workplace within a prescribed timeframe following notification that remedial work is complete and render a formal determination on lifting the closure notice without delay. And of course as we can appreciate here, Madam President, is that we don’t want to have businesses close indefinitely or unreasonably long. Because it hurts both the business, the company, and the worker. And I’m sure it’s not the intention of the bill to create that type of onerous situation. Enforcement protections and privacy rights for domestic workers under section three, Madam President, extends the protection of this act to domestic workers. Subject to future regulations regarding constitutional privacy rights within private residences and I think that Senator Faber has raised this issue on domestic workers a number of times in these sessions as I can remember. We recommend the inclusion of domestic workers, however, leaving enforcement framework entirely to future unspecified regulations creates legal uncertainty for households and domestic workers alike. The draft is silent on entry warrants, resident consent, the rights of household members who are not the employer, and how broad section 10 powers apply inside a private home. Without clear guidelines, we risk creating a rights conflict that leads directly to constitutional challenges. We recommend that the regulations governing domestic workers safety be drafted concurrently with this legislation, explicitly addressing notice and consent procedures for entering private residences, alternative compliance mechanisms such as off-site interviews or documentation reviews, and clear boundary definitions balancing workplace safety with a constitutional right to privacy in one’s home.” 

The Government says more than a dozen amendments were made following concerns raised during consultations. The Act will now take effect in phases, allowing the Labour Department to establish the inspectorate, regulations, training programmes and compliance systems before enforcement begins.