$3 Million In B.t.l. Dividends To Be Managed By Associated Union Trustees

<p><span style="font-size:13px;"><a rel="nofollow" class="highslide" target="_blank" href="http://edition.channel5belize.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Trustees.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-101813" title="Trustees" src="http://edition.channel5belize.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Trustees-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225"/></a>More than three million dollars has been placed into an account which will be administered by four union trustees. The funds represent dividends for shares which were offered to public officers and teachers whose increments were frozen between 1995 and 1997. According to a release sent out by G.O.B. today, in 1995 government agreed to give the Public Service Union and the Belize National Teachers Union almost eight hundred thousand shares in B.T.L. as compensation for the freezing of increments. In 2007, those shares were formally transferred to the B.N.T.U. and the P.S.U., but the dividends earned were retained by government pending the establishment of a trust by the unions. Seven years later that was finally accomplished, with the establishment of four trustees representing the P.S.U., the B.N.T.U., the Nurses Association of Belize, the Belize Defence Force and the Belize Police Association. The government release invites public officers, teachers and open vote workers whose increments were frozen to contact the trustees for further information about the benefits payable to them. But today, News Five contacted trustee Ray Davis, representing the Public Service Union. He told us that the trust will be used to fund projects, as opposed to paying out any benefits as is suggested by the release.</span></p>

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