e. Acceptable Conditions of Work

The minimum wage is $1.12 (bz$2.25), except in export industries, where it is $1.00 (bz$2.00) per hour. For domestic workers in private households and shop assistants in stores where liquor is not consumed, the rate is $0.87 (bz$1.75) per hour. The minimum wage law does not cover workers paid on a piecework basis. The Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Public Services, and Labor is charged with enforcing the legal minimum wage, which generally is respected in practice. The minimum wage as sole source of income does not provide a decent standard of living for a worker and family. Most salaried workers receive more than the minimum wage.

The law sets the normal workweek at no more than 6 days or 45 hours. It requires payment for overtime work, 13 public holidays, an annual vacation of 2 weeks, and sick leave for up to 16 days. An employee is eligible for severance pay provided that he was employed continuously for at least 5 years.

The exploitation of undocumented Hispanic workers, particularly young service workers and possibly some agricultural workers, continued to be a problem. Banana farm owners slowly are moving the housing they provide for their workers away from the fields where poisonous pesticides are sprayed. Health clinics in the region report that the most frequently treated ailments are pesticide-related skin conditions. Company-provided housing often lacks electricity and water. The Government, the HRCB, and other concerned citizens all focus on this problem. A patchwork of health and safety regulations covers numerous industries, and the Labor Department in the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Public Services, and Labor enforces these regulations to varying degrees. Enforcement is not universal, and the ministries commit their limited inspection and investigative resources principally to urban and more accessible rural areas where labor, health, and safety complaints have been registered. Workers have the legal right to remove themselves from a dangerous workplace situation without jeopardy to continued employment.

From: Country Reports on Human Rights
Practices for 1999

Released by the Bureau of Democracy,
Human Rights, and Labor
U.S. Department of State

February 2000

http://www.usemb.se/human/human1999/belize.html