The Government of Belize was unable to honor the payment of salary increases that was due in 1994 which was in direct response to the IMF requirement that the wage bill be reduced. As a consequence, the Government at the time had to suspend increments and retrench officers (see circular no. 9 in resources). This called for the unions namely BNTU and PSU to negotiate with the Government of Belize which lead to a compensation package (see. Circular no. 10 of 1996 in resources). In addition to the compensation package offered the Government offered the unions a total of 480,000 “B” shares in Belize Telecommunications Limited. This agreement called for the shares to be held in Trust for all Government workers. In addition, it was proposed that the income from these shares be used to fund various projects for the benefit of all government paid employees. In 2004 the Government of Belize sold majority shareholding of BTL to Innovative Communications Corporation and throughout that year the company made several attempts to take advantage of the minority shareholder. In May of 2004 the financial secretary responded to a letter sent to the Prime Mister to say that the Government had on behalf on the Unions 480,000 “B” and 87666 “C” shares and GOB savings bank account #s-2780 with $1.6 million as at May 2004 earning 6% interest. Over the years BTL did not pay dividends which led to an increase in the number of shares held by the Trust (currently 794732). In 2007 the Government allowed the unions to gain access to the dividends and at that point the Unions started the process of hiring legal expertise to set up the deed of trust. The Trust deed was finalized in August of 2013 and re-registered at the supreme court due to the Trust amendment act of 2014. In 2014 Government finally released the funds. Since October 07 2014 the Trust has been operational.
