The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business

Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

The union representing Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) line staff yesterday said it was seeking a Supreme Court injunction to block the lay-off of 140 staff, as its leader expressed surprise over the Government’s failure to intervene.

Bernard Evans, the Bahamas Communications and Public Officers Union  (BCPOU) president, alleged that  BTC was in direct contravention of their industrial agreement as it relates to redundancies.

“Our hope is that the company will not be able to carry out their wishes in terms of outsourcing staff,” he said.

“They have not followed the letter, the terms of the agreement, which relates to redundancies.

“We are supposed to have dialogue and be provided with an official list of areas to be outsourced and personnel to be impacted by that. By right, members are supposed to be notified and given 120 days’ notice with time off to go and look for employment  elsewhere.

“None of this was afforded to us. They are in direct contravention of our industrial agreement, and we hope the injunction will hold up to prevent them from carrying out the proposed exercise. They have not met with staff, nor have they met with us to share the list officially.”

Mr Evans said the union had filed the injunction application on Monday, and hoped the Supreme Court would uphold it by today.

 “Management did give an extension somewhat, so members were not given letters, but we did not get that in writing,” he added/.

“We wouldn’t be surprised if they reneged on that so-called verbal promise for a delay. We hope in not too short order to meet with members regarding this exercise. This is a difficult time. No one wants to be put out of work. There aren’t jobs readily available here in Nassau.”

    Mr Evans said the union was pleased with what BTC was offering employees exiting the company, but  for those remaining there were still a number of outstanding issues the union is trying to bring resolution to.

The BCPOU said last week it had been advised that BTC planned to let go as many as 140 employees in the first round of redundancies. In February, it was announced that BTC - which has 779 employees - planned to cut jobs to reduce its operational costs in preparation for competition in the mobile sector.

The company offered a voluntary separation package but, prior to the Easter holidays, BTC chief executive Leon Williams sent a memo to staff advising that due to the small number of applications the company would move ahead via redundancies.

    “BTC is a money making machine. It’s all about profit for them,” Mr Evans said. “It’s not that they don’t need employees. The quality of service has been going downhill, and if they reduce staff any further you can only imagine what kind of service you can expect to receive.

“Right now we are going to rely on the law and our injunction. Hopefully within that timeframe that we have, they would come to their good senses and good judgement.”    

Mr Evans said he was surprised that the Government, which has a minority equity stake in BTC, has been silent on the potential job cuts.

“When it comes to BTC they are obviously silent on it. That is more surprising,” said Mr Evans.

 Ricardo Thompson, the Bahamas Communications and Public Managers Union (BCPMU) president, said that while his union was not at the negotiating table, there were still concerns over the way BTC was carrying out its outsourcing exercise.

“We are not at the negotiating table at this time, but what concerns me is the secretive modus operandi that is being used,” Mr Thompson said.

“If we are going to talk about outsourcing and identify areas and possible ownership for the employees, we would have expected to sit at the table and have documents presented where we could clearly see how things will fall in place at the end of the day, and we would be certain that there is no trickery involved.

“I’m not implying that there is but we know that these things can go afoul after you sign off.”