1 week ago
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The Ministry of Rural Transformation, Community Development, Labour and Local Government says it is seeking to strengthen its working relationship with Belize’s growing Business Process Outsourcing, or BPO, sector amid ongoing public concerns about working conditions within the industry. In recent years, the BPO sector has become one of Belize’s largest employers, particularly for young people entering the workforce. However, complaints have continued to surface publicly regarding workplace policies at some call centers, including reported restrictions on restroom breaks, limitations on personal cellphone use during shifts, and challenges surrounding time-off requests. Today, Chief Executive Officer in the Ministry of Labour, Tanya Santos, acknowledged that concerns have been raised by workers and members of the public, but noted that the Labour Department has been maintaining communication with representatives from within the industry through the BPO Association for Employers. Santos says the ministry is hoping to foster closer collaboration with the sector while ensuring that labour standards are upheld.
Tanya Santos Neal ,CEO, Ministry of Immigration: “We do know that there have been visits to and discussions with the BPO employers and we’re also trying to forge a stronger relationship with them through their association so as to have more compliance if that is an issue and support for their staff. But also we have to recognize that we need to do more inspections and the labour officers need to be given the opportunity to implement the mandate. Walk into a business freely to investigate and to ask questions and get to the bottom of situations so that we can make sure that we are protecting all the workers and the employers. There’s always pressure, always, and again I would be putting my head in the sand as the CEO of a ministry to say these things don’t happen. Just like I had said Id’ be putting my head in the sand if I said there’s no coordinated sickout. Sickout is it’s not an official sickout but it’s what’s used for example. So I have to acknowledge that there are challenges like that, pressures do come when you try to implement and we have to find a way to get that and I don’t think it’s an insurmountable task, I think it just involves dialogue, mutual respect among all the parties and we can get these activities going , these inspections and conducting our duties.”
Santos explained that the ministry’s engagement with the sector is aimed at improving communication between employers and labour officials while also addressing concerns raised by employees when necessary.
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