Eleven Prison Officers Walk Off Job Over Poor Conditions and Pay Dispute

As the government battles with the unions, the Belize Central Prison is having its own issues as eleven officers walked off the job this morning.  Love News understands that the walk-out stems from several factors including the accommodations afforded at the workplace as well as a demand for a salary increase.  According to the CEO of the prison, Virgilio Murrillo, those who walked off the jobs are primarily recent hires who had complained over the lack of locker spaces and the use of bunk beds.

Virgilio Murillo, CEO, Belize Central Prison: “Had 11 prison officers, majority of them, over 75 % of them who were recently hired walked off the job because they are disgruntled over locker space and not wanting to sleep on the top bunks at the barracks because we have a barracks where we house prison officers who work shifts. And it’s highly impractical for us to provide an individual locker for over 200 people. So we had an amount, we had a fixed quantity, and we asked them to share lockers, and they do not want to do that. They want their own individual lockers for themselves, whether they are at work or not. And secondly, they do not want to sleep on the bunk, the top bunk. Everybody wants bottom bunk. However, that’s again very highly impractical. The size of the barracks would not be able to accommodate a single bed for each and every prison officer.”

According to one prison officer, who opted to remain anonymous, they are now demanding that the prison board explore ways to provide a better working environment with adequate facilities.  He noted that they are forced to share locker space which proves challenging for officers who commute long distances.  Additionally, the prison officer says they would want the cell phone policy be adjusted.  As it stands, the officers are not allowed to use cell phones throughout the course of the day.

Prison Officer: “Okay, it was that we were given a new barracks and at the new barracks we were given lockers with keys and then they told us that whenever our shift was over we need to hand over the keys so that other officers can use it but we that come from PG we have stuff that we don’t want to travel with, come back home and take it back again when we go back on another shift. It’s a very long way and for example, we have fans, we take groceries that we use to cook and that makes us feel very… we have certain hours or certain time that we can use our phone in the morning and in the night and we have to hand it up back. Because sometimes when we do day shift we get calls from different areas or different people maybe relatives and so on and then the time that we have in the evening from if you do day shift you come off at 7 p.m. and then you need to hand over back your phone at 9 p.m. I think if they could extend that, that maybe we could use our phone and then get through because then you can never know or never tell what phone calls you receive and what there could be emergencies that you need to talk about or maybe you as a family man need to make arrangements. You know, we are asking for an increase as we are doing some 12-hour shifts, long 12-hour shifts at night. And I think they need to consider us being far away. And it’s really difficult for us to travel from there to Deep South.  And it’s not really feasible for us to be doing or traveling with that salary that we’re getting right now.”

Currently, the prison employs 200 prison guards, and about 50 civilian staff members.