BELMOPAN, Belize (CMC) — A controversy is brewing here after a bank employee resigned her job amid allegations that she had been prevented from speaking her native Garifuna language.

“Recent attempts to damage the reputation of the bank through accusations of discrimination against the Garifuna community in Belize are baseless and untrue,” the CIBC FirstCaribbean said in a statement, noting “we encourage the use of the official language/languages of any country in our public settings, as a courtesy to all our customers and employees, particularly for conversations that are conducted within earshot of a mixture of ethnicities.

“The bank confirms that there is no policy within CIBC FirstCaribbean that prohibits the use of Garifuna, or any other native language, within the bank. Our employees are free to use whatever language they are comfortable with in their private conversations.”

The National Garifuna Council of Belize (NGCB) said it is investigating the allegations that the Dangriga branch of the CIBC FirstCaribbean Bank was discouraging its employees and customers from speaking Garifuna within the premises of the financial institution.

NGCB President Robert Mariona said a meeting was being planned to further discuss the issue and that if proven true he hoped the bank would apologise and remove the discriminatory rules against the Garifuna language, which is the native language of the Dangriga community.

The New York-based United Garifuna Association Incorporated said the alleged action of the bank “violates ones right to express themselves and it violates the rights of indigenous people to receive and render service in their native tongue.

“This is inexcusable and the United Garifuna Association Inc wishes to inform all private sector enterprise and Government offices that it is illegal to restrict anyone from speaking in their native tongue,” warning that it is prepared to take legal action “against such entities in the courts of Belize as the Belize Constitution at Section 16 provides protection against discrimination based on one’s race”.

Garifuna activist Dr Theodore Aranda said the prohibition of Garifuna is a violation of the Belize Constitution as well as the employee’s human rights.

“The Constitution of Belize embodies and supports the maintenance of the culture, the identity, [and] language of the people. It is embedded in our constitution so FirstCaribbean Bank has absolutely no right to violate the laws of Belize or violate the Constitution of Belize because that’s exactly what they are violating by firing somebody who says hello to her customers, something that they should encourage but rather they are trying to destroy,” he said on News 5 television news.

He told television viewers that the Belizean laws prohibits “totally the discrimination or the crushing of these factors that make up the culture of the people.

“So what we are saying to the First CaribbeanBank now is either you shape up, stop this nonsense or else you are going to have a battle with us,” he said, telling the bank it must reject the letter of resignation from the unidentified employee because to do otherwise would be to strengthen and embolden the “fact and indeed executing the fact that they are discriminating against her and she is accept the discrimination”.