Belize Vacation
US Department Of State Post Report
Depending on the availability of funds, Post tries to employ, at least temporarily, teenage family members who come to Guyana for a summer vacation. ... Guyana's National Insurance Scheme (NIS) covers illness or accidents to local employees. Both employers and employees must contribute to the NIS monthly. NIS provides maternity leave to a pregnant employee at 70% of her salary. Domestic employees are entitled to 1 day's paid vacation for each completed month of service, after 12 completed months of service. Unless employees are separated for cause, they are entitled to 14 days' notice of intention to separate, or 14 days pay in lieu of notice from the employer. ... [Read More]
Austria
Austrian social insurance is compulsory and comprises health insurance, old-age pension insurance, unemployment insurance, and accident insurance. Social insurance contributions are a percentage of total monthly earnings and are shared by employers and employees. Although EU requirements facilitated greater job flexibility, terms of employment are closely regulated by law in Austria and include working hours, minimum vacation time (5 weeks), holidays, maternity leave, statutory separation notice, and protection against dismissal. The new severance pay system implemented in 2002 is designed to enhance worker flexibility further. Employers contribute 1.53% of their monthly pay to severance pay funds and employees have the right to carry their accrued entitlement with them when changing the employer. A new regulation since July 1, 2004 allows parents with children under the age of seven who have worked for at least three years to choose part-time work until the children reach age seven. T ... [Read More]
Biodiversity
For the one quarter of humanity who live at or near subsistence levels, plant diversity offers more than just food security and health care -- it also provides a roof over their heads, cooks their food, provides eating utensils, and on average meets about 90 percent of their material needs. Consider palms: temperate zone dwellers may think of palm trees primarily as providing an occasional coconut or the backdrop to an idyllic island vacation, but tropical peoples have a different perspective. The babassu palm from the eastern Amazon Basin has more than 35 different uses -- construction material, oil and fiber source, game attractant, even as an insect repellent. Commercial extraction of babassu products is a part or fulltime economic activity for more than 2 million rural Brazilians. ... [Read More]
US Embassy Guatemala City - Recent Crime Incidents Involving Foreigners
1 1 12/27/02 1 1 CA-1, near Sololá, Sololá: At approximately 1:45 p.m., a pick-up truck with six 1 men armed with automatic weapons forced a tour van carrying 14 tourists to stop. The 1 driver was assaulted and the van taken onto a nearby dirt road. The tourists were 1 searched individually and gold jewelry, cash, credit cards, and travelers checks were 1 taken. The women were forced to remove their underwear, but were not sexually assaulted.1 The assailants slapped two of the tourists when they were too slow at handing over their1 valuables. The tourists were tied up and left with a warning not to move for twenty 1 minutes or they would be killed. 1 12/22/02 [Read More]
Belize
In its July report, the ICFTU stated that child labor was prevalent, particularly in family farms and businesses, and that child labor laws were not well-enforced. In 2003, the Central Statistical Office (CSO) estimated that 6 percent of children between the ages of 5 and 17 were working, half of them in hazardous work. The CSO study did not include the sizeable undocumented population, many of whom were not in school. In rural regions, children worked on family plots and businesses after school, on weekends, and during vacations and were involved in the citrus, banana, and sugar industries as field workers. In urban areas, children shined shoes, sold food, crafts, and other small items, and worked in markets. Teenage girls, some of whom were trafficked from neighboring countries, worked as domestic servants, and some were rumored to work as bar maids and prostitutes (see Section 5, Trafficking). ... [Read More]
Belize
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. ... [Read More]
US Department Of State Post Report
Local schools provide good education through the junior high school level. The basics are taught, but creative art, music, and laboratory science are lacking. The school year usually begins the first Monday after September 10, and ends in mid-June. There is a 3-week vacation at Christmas and a 2-week vacation at Easter. ... The Mexican town of Chetumal (a 2-hour drive), with freshwater, crystal clear lagoons for swimming close by, makes a good weekend excursion. The modern resorts of Cancun, Cozumel, Playa del Carmen and Isla Mujeres are six hours by car and are popular vacation sites for Embassy staff. Cancun boasts every American chain restaurant and a Wet ’n Wild waterpark. Merida, the capital city of the Yucatan is also a six-hour drive. It has excellent shopping and sightseeing facilities, and can be used as a base for visits to the famous ruins of Uxmal and Chichen-Itza. ... [Read More]
Belize
A 2001 NOPCAN report stated that child labor existed in many forms in the Corozal district, with children working as shop assistants, gasoline attendants, and cane farmers. During the year, the ILO estimated that 11 percent of children between the ages of 5 and 17 were working. In the rural regions, children worked on family plots and businesses after school, on weekends, and during vacations and were involved in the citrus, banana, and sugar industries as field workers. In urban areas, children shined shoes, sold newspapers and other small items, and worked in markets. Teenage girls, many of whom were migrants from neighboring Central American countries, worked as domestic servants, and some were rumored to work as bar maids and prostitutes. ... [Read More]
Belize
A January 2001 NOPCAN report stated that child labor existed in many forms in the Corozal district, with children working as shop assistants, gasoline attendants, and cane farmers. In 1999 the ILO estimated that 2 percent of children between the ages of 10 and 14 were working. In the rural regions, children worked on family plots and businesses after school, on weekends, and during vacations and were involved in the citrus, banana, and sugar industries as field workers. In urban areas, children shined shoes, sold newspapers and other small items, and worked in markets. Teenage girls, many of whom were migrants from neighboring Central American countries, worked as domestic servants, and some were rumored to work as bar maids and prostitutes. Other reported instances of violation of child labor laws were rare; one report that received wide exposure involved the employment of 16- to 18-year-olds in the Commercial Free Zone, an EPZ near the Mexican border, where the teenagers reportedly w ... [Read More]
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