PSU Demands Job and Pension Protections Be Written Into Revenue Authority Bill

The Public Service Union of Belize (PSU) has escalated its standoff with the Ministry of Finance over the draft Revenue Authority Bill 2026, demanding that verbal promises regarding job security, wages, and pensions be written directly into law. The dispute centers on the government’s plan to transition the Belize Tax Service Department into a semi-autonomous Belize Revenue Authority, a move union leaders argue strips public officers of critical employment rights. At the core of the conflict is a major dispute over retirement benefits, as the union warns that transferring staff risks forfeiting earned pensions or facing deferred payouts unless the law explicitly classifies their exit under an abolition-of-office clause. The union is also pushing for a statutory guarantee that compensation at the new Authority will be no less favorable than current public service standards, while rejecting the requirement for existing workers to reapply for their own jobs. Furthermore, union representatives have called out a proposed two-tier system that allows top executives to retain their secure public officer status while forcing lower-level employees to surrender theirs. The Ministry of Finance maintains that flexible, competitive terms are necessary to attract specialized talent and that permanent staff who are not selected will remain within the wider public service. However, the union accuses the government of taking fundamental policy decisions behind closed doors and ignoring past commitments to form a joint working group. The union has now submitted a schedule of sixteen proposed legal amendments and twenty-two specific questions, urging the government to pause the legislative process until these protections are formally addressed.