DFC, CWU and Labor Dept. meet on redundancies

Black Immigrant Daily News

Another meeting among representatives from the CWU, DFC, and the Labor Department took place on Monday afternoon.

BELMOPAN, Mon. Sept. 5, 2022

The walkout at the Development Finance Corporation (DFC) last Thursday morning has triggered yet another round of meetings between DFC reps and the representative of its unionized workers, the Christian Workers Union (CWU). DFC recently carried out a redundancy exercise which resulted in the termination of three employees last week, but the union has objected to the way the redundancy exercise took place, which it says deviated from the protocol laid out by the Labour Act, and it has thus brought the Labor Department into the discussions. Friday‘s meeting was attended by union president Evan “Mose” Hyde, who told local media that they are simply ensuring that the process is being followed in accordance with the Labour Act.

“What the union is there to do, is to ensure that in that case, the worst case scenario, the worst case scenario which is not a pleasant thing to have happen—is that it is not being done in a way that is not consistent with what is laid out in the Labour Act, for obvious reasons. You just can’t have anybody just cry redundancy at any old time. It has to be done properly, so that’s what it is that we are involved with, and we have individuals whose lives are impacted by this, and we have to act in their interest,” he said.

Hyde went on to state that at this time the union and the management of DFC have very different views on the matter of redundancy, which happens to be just one part of an overall organizational restructuring that is taking place within the DFC. Some steps forward were taken at the meeting on Friday, Hyde said, and he expressed hopes that they could further build on that progress in the meeting to be held this afternoon.

Assistant General Manager of the DFC, Belizario Carballo, has said that in total 10 posts were determined to be redundant after the approved organizational restructuring was carried out. In an interview following the meeting, he stated that this upgrading of the DFC started as far back as June 9, and the CWU was involved since that time.

“We have been engaged with both the Christian Workers Union and the Labour Commissioner,” Carballo said, adding that the legislation stipulates that the employer merely “inform and consult” as a part of the process. “Whilst our position is that we have done so, the CWU is of a different view, and so today, and like I said this process started from the 9th of June and since then we have had significant submissions, discussion, disclosures about the who, the why, the when, and the how, all of that. Today, what has brought us together is that we have proceeded with three of the terminations as planned, but clearly, there is an issue with it,” Carballo said.

CWU president Hyde said that the views of the DFC and the union diverge when the parties consider what are the requirements of those affected by the redundancy, and how the process should be carried out.

“With the participation of the Labor Department, we are trying to get to some agreed way forward to deal with that difference of opinion,” Hyde said.

Carballo commented that the redundancy exercise is just one process in an overall organizational restructuring being untaken by the DFC, as mentioned, and Hyde noted that other areas are also being looked at as a part of this process.

“This is a process that is simultaneous, redundancy, that matter of salary reduction, the matter of the reductions of benefits. This has been an ongoing conversation, negotiations and obviously the DFC management has its marching orders and its core understanding of what is to be done and how it is to be done, and the union has its own – we are guided by our membership,” Hyde said.

In total, the posts of 5 persons were terminated, although 10 posts were determined to be redundant. Two of the five tendered their resignations and received some type of compensation, and the employment of three others was terminated last week, triggering the walkout.

“As part of the process of informing staff, two members who would have been made redundant opted to be paid immediately, and so those two have already been paid about a month or so ago, and now these are the last 3,” Carballo said.

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