The Government of Belize on February 15th 2024 published a press release announcing the launch of a comprehensive review of the Labour Act in light of  “evolving dynamics of the labour market and the pressing need to address contemporary challenges.” This announcement follows the call from employer and worker organizations who, for years, have highlighted the need to modernize Belize’s labour laws, citing outdated provisions that impact business growth and inadequate protections for employers and employees. We will look at how some provisions in the Labour act are in need of updating, particularly in the areas of written contracts and night work for women. 

The Labour Act: A quick introduction

The Labour Act was originally passed as an Ordnance in the Legislative Assembly in 1959 and came into force through Proclamation on 1st August 1960. The Ordinance (now Act) created the Labour Department with the Labour Commissioner as head. Its primary purpose was to consolidate the various other instruments regulating workers conditions and industrial relations. The Act itself has received very few amendments since its original passing, with the largest set of amendments being made in 2011. This suite of amendments followed a paper published in 2007 on the Labour Act’s  compliance with the CARICOM Model Labour Law and some ILO conventions. The paper made several recommendations for the law to be changed in areas such as termination, equality of wages, occupational health and safety, and discrimination. 

Written Employment Contracts 

Under the current law, a contract of employment or service can either be written or unwritten (made verbally) and a contract can also be implied where the conditions satisfy that a contract of employment exists. This is consistent with general principles of contract law. However, the problem that has arisen is that as employers transition to using employment/service contracts more often, the law on written contracts contains requirements that are either no longer in practice and/or have no place in modern contexts.  Here are some examples: 

1. Written contracts must be presented to the Labour department for attestation – Under the current law, an employer has 7 days to submit the employment contract for attestation or risk being fined $250 for failure to do so. Additionally, contracts of employment that are not attested are unenforceable except for the first month after it was made. This provision has not been enforced within the last 20 years and is not being practiced by employers, yet it remains on the books. 
2. Employers must pay for medical examinations – Another relic of a labour practice long abandoned is the statutory requirement for employers to pay for medical examinations upon signing of employment contracts. The Labour Act requires for a worker to undergo a medical examination paid for by the employer before the contract is submitted for attestation. This is likely notpracticed Belize and keeping it in the law can cause confusion for new employers learning to navigate labour regulations. 
3. Maximum periods for written contracts – Written employment contracts cannot, unless in special circumstances, be made for a duration of more than one year. In practice, this requirement has long been abandoned and the law gives power to the Labour Commissioner to exclude from the application of that provision, contracts where it is apparent that the freedom of choice in employment is safeguarded. Regardless, some industries may find it necessary to contract for more than 1 year and the law should change to facilitate that freedom. 

Restrictions on Employing Women

This is another area that clearly reminds us how old the Labour Act is and how out of touch its provisions are with reality. Section 160 of the law prohibits women from working at night (night being defined as 11 consecutive hours of a day which include 10 p.m. to 5 a.m.). 

This has caused some very practical difficulties for some industries. For example, the BPO sector which sometimes operates 24 hours a day using shift systems are legally barred from employing women to work at night. The same is true for the private security industry which is seeing a growing number of female employees. These provisions, which were intended to prevent the exploitation of women workers, add unnecessary restrictions for employers and may prevent women from pursuing a wider variety of work. 

Looking forward

Labour dynamics in Belize have long shifted since the 1960’s and provisions which were originally intended to secure protections for workers no longer apply in many cases. In others, they limit employment opportunities for women and make employment processes difficult for employers. A comprehensive review and modernization of Belize employment laws is clearly needed, but the changes we make must be inclusive and strike the balance between workers and employers.