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BAHA Defends Employee Dismissals Amid PSU’s Criticism The Belize Agricultural Health Authority is refuting allegations from the Public Service Union. The union claims BAHA violated its Collective Bargaining Agreement when two employees were dismissed, but BAHA says that’s not true and calls the accusations defamatory. In a statement today, BAHA insists it followed every step of the disciplinary process, including notice, the chance to respond, and the right to representation. The authority says recent investigations were triggered by public reports, and when gross misconduct was confirmed, action was taken. BAHA also points out the union wasn’t involved in these cases and hasn’t requested information on behalf of any member. Dean Flowers, President, Public Service Union “So they were once under the Ministry of Agriculture responsible for, of course importation of plants and vegetables and so on and including animals. So they had that mandate and administrative of agriculture back in 2000 when the boneheaded decisions of commencing to statutorize government department started, BAHA was one of those departments that was made statutorized back in 2000. We were able to negotiate with, I believe it was the then Musa administration to ensure that these people would’ve transitioned into statutory body with their benefits and more importantly, with their dignity and representation in place. And so we’ve been able to continue representing the membership of BAHA. They have their own CBA that governs their terms and conditions of service. That CBA outlines very clearly the disciplinary process and the procedures that ought to be followed when taking disciplinary action against employees. Under this new administration, a new director was appointed and we have been doing our best, of course to maintain a professional working relationship with this new administration as well as with this new board at BAHA. Over the last, I believe, two or three months. What we’ve seen is a heavy handed approach by the managing director.”
