A major industrial relations dispute has emerged in Belize ahead of a key parliamentary vote, as the Public Service Union (PSU) has directed all members of the Belize Tax Service Department (BTSD) to prepare for potential industrial action if the 2026 Revenue Authority Bill advances through the House of Representatives in its unamended form. The union has levied serious accusations against the national government, claiming it was deliberately excluded from the legislative drafting process that shaped the flagship revenue reform bill.
In an official media statement released Thursday, the PSU detailed a months-long pattern of exclusion during the lead-up to the bill’s parliamentary consideration. The legislation is designed to transition the BTSD into a newly created Semi-Autonomous Revenue Authority, a restructuring overseen by a high-level Project Steering Committee. According to the union, the committee never meaningfully incorporated PSU stakeholder input before the bill was sent to the full House for a vote.
During the committee’s inaugural sitting in May, the full text of the bill was only presented as a slide deck, with no formal distributed text for members to review. In a striking revelation, the PSU confirmed that the BTSD’s own in-house legal counsel was unable to address member questions about the legislation, as she had not been involved in the drafting process at all.
The union’s account of procedural irregularities continued: PSU submitted formal, on-time feedback on the committee’s Terms of Reference in mid-May, but it took more than 30 days for the Financial Secretary to issue any response. A follow-up meeting promised by the Secretary to address the union’s concerns has yet to be scheduled, even months after the initial commitment.
When the PSU moved forward independently to organize an internal consultation with BTSD staff in July to collect on-the-ground concerns about the restructuring, the Financial Secretary formally blocked the meeting. After the union proposed an alternative date, no official response was ever issued. Undeterred, the PSU held the unauthorized consultation anyway, compiled all staff feedback into a formal report, and delivered it to the Financial Secretary’s office. The Secretary confirmed receipt of the report on August 10, just two days before the bill went to the Finance and Economic Development Committee for review.
According to the PSU, the compiled staff concerns were never presented to the Finance and Economic Development Committee during its August 12 consideration of the bill. The union called this omission deliberately disingenuous, noting that the committee’s own public consultation process was already extremely limited and underdeveloped.
The PSU has formally called on the House of Representatives to send the bill back to committee for full stakeholder consultation, and announced that it will also submit its full set of objections and recommendations directly to the Belize Senate for consideration. The union warned that the legislation, in its current form, poses significant dangers to the country’s public service framework and long-term governance.
In closing, the PSU issued a direct mobilization message to all BTSD members, urging them to remain in close contact with union leadership and stand ready to take collective action if the bill passes the Lower House. “To every member of the Belize Tax Service Department: this fight is not over, and it is not yours to face alone,” the statement read. “We ask every member to ready themselves for whatever action becomes necessary should this Bill be passed in the Lower House.”