After months of unaddressed grievances and stalled negotiations, a group of disgruntled former employees of Belize Electricity Limited (BEL) has escalated its campaign for owed severance pay by demonstrating on the steps of Belize’s National Assembly. Organized under the banner Belize Energy Workers for Justice, the group says it has exhausted all lower-level avenues to resolve the dispute—holding public protests, meeting with government officials, staging press conferences, and protesting directly at BEL headquarters—yet has been met with continued inaction.
The core of the workers’ demand is straightforward: they are seeking the same severance compensation that was awarded to former employees of Belize Telemedia Limited (BTL) following a binding court ruling. According to the group, BEL has rejected this comparison, arguing that the BTL ruling does not apply to its former workers, and is now preparing to bring the dispute before the High Court to seek declaratory confirmation of its position.
In addition to demanding immediate payment of their owed severance, the workers are calling for leadership changes at the top of BEL, specifically the removal of newly appointed company chairman Lynn Young.
Dorla Staine, a representative of Belize Energy Workers for Justice, spoke on behalf of the group during the National Assembly demonstration, outlining the urgency of the workers’ situation. “We have already exhausted every channel,” Staine explained. “We met with the responsible minister, who publicly expressed support and promised to bring our case before Cabinet and the Attorney General for review. But even as we wait, BEL is moving forward with new court action over a matter that has already been ruled on. We came here today to appeal directly to the Prime Minister, as the nation’s top leader, to intervene on behalf of elderly workers who gave decades of service to Belize.”
Staine pushed back against BEL’s claim that the BTL severance precedent does not apply, noting that unlike BTL workers, the former BEL employees’ severance pay is not already incorporated into their existing pension benefits—a key distinction BEL has refused to acknowledge. She also emphasized that the years-long legal process has already taken a devastating toll on the group of mostly elderly former workers. “This legal battle already dragged on for five years: the Marin Group first filed the case in 2020, and the ruling was only issued in 2025,” Staine said. “Many of our members do not have five more years to wait. We have already lost colleagues to death, others are hospitalized, and many more are struggling with poor health just to get by each day.”
As the dispute heads toward a new round of High Court litigation, the former workers warn that time is running out for many of their members, and are pressing elected and corporate leaders to intervene before more workers pass away without ever receiving the compensation they are owed.