BTC now deciding on staff to receive severance

As of Wednesday, March 18, 2015

By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas Telecommunications Company is now in the process of deciding which employees are best suited to receive voluntary separation packages, according to officials from the Bahamas Communications and Public Officers Union.

BCPOU Secretary General Dino Rolle yesterday said the union was still not in a position to confirm just how many of its members have applied for the voluntary separation packages (VSEPs), but said BTC’s management is now focusing on filtering through the applications, with a definite figure on the number of applicants to be released afterwards.

Monday marked the deadline for employees to submit their applications for the VSEPs. BCPOU President Bernard Evans said his members waited to the last minutes to decide whether they would submit their applications for the VSEPs. He also said that if any of his members applied for the packages, it was done out fear and uncertainty.

Numerous attempts by The Tribune to reach Mr Evans for comment yesterday were unsuccessful up to press time, however.

When contacted yesterday, Mr Rolle told The Tribune: “I know this morning we were supposed to be in that contract negotiation that relates to the industrial agreement but that has been called off for today and Thursday so that management can focus on the applications that came in. As of now we have no indication of how many persons applied and whether or not they meet their numbers.

“Persons are only applying for the separation package, and it doesn’t necessarily mean that everybody who applies, the company would be in a position to release them. So those are the dynamics that management is considering right now.”

Last month, it was announced that BTC has plans to cut hundreds of jobs in preparation for competition in the mobile phone sector.

BTC has just over 700 employees. The union believes the company wants to let go between 150 to 250 workers.

Mr Evans, in an earlier interview, told The Tribune the impending staff cuts were “shocking” and “insulting.” He said BTC employees were “distraught” over the rushed, “sneaky” way the company was handling the move.

However, BTC CEO Leon Williams has defended the move and said that the impending cuts were strictly business.

duppyVAT 9 years, 1 month ago

How much they giving the employees???? 20G per year?????? health insurance and shares??? This is a joke!!!!!!!!

birdiestrachan 9 years, 1 month ago

I am sorry to hear people will be loosing their jobs. It is not a good feeling especially if they have many bills , with no one to help them pay.

B_I_D___ 9 years, 1 month ago

You mean they have to go find a real job and not some government handout?

Cobalt 9 years, 1 month ago

Wait a minute! Someone please correct me if I'm wrong......... but didn't the PLP government just criticize the FNM government when BTC conducted the same downsizing practices????? Now almost three years later they're doing the exact same thing!!!

The FNM government knew that BTC, like every government owned entity, is over-staffed and under-managed resulting in inflated cost to the Bahamian consumer!! Yet when they sold Batelco and had workers laid off, the PLP used this as political leverage to initiated a frenzy amongst illiterate, ignorant, Bahamians who couldnt visualize beyond their own stupidity that they were being used in an election ploy.

So I wonder what these very same people are going to say now about their beloved PLP initiating lay-off practices!!

duppyVAT 9 years, 1 month ago

Soooooooooooo, are we to believe that these terminated BTC workers will be laid off today and hired by Digicel/Virgin/CB by this summer????????????

bahamalove 9 years, 1 month ago

BTC Chairman Phil Bentley is a smart man. He happily conceded to replacing Geoff Houston with Leon Williams because he knew this downsizing exercise was coming. And he made the idiot PLPs think that they got back majority shares in BTC. Now all the PLPs cannot blame the white man for BTC workers losing their jobs. They can look squarely at one of their own (Leon Williams) and blame him and their incompetent PLP government who, according to them, have majority shares and thus, technically are able to stop this downsizing exercise. But of course, as usual, they backtracked and said they are not responsible for the running of BTC.

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