The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas Telecommunications Company's (BTC) chief executive has warned that unproductive staff should be "anxious" for their jobs as the company is "late" in adjusting to competition.

Garfield "Garry" Sinclair told Tribune Business he wanted to prove it was "an advantage" for BTC to have unionised staff, pointing out that its upstart mobile rival, Aliv, is able to undercut it on price because it does not face the same costs and relationships.

Responding to last week's union protests, triggered by fears BTC will outsource its call centre overseas with a corresponding loss of jobs, and tensions over the company's alleged failure to negotiate a new industrial agreement that resulted in the BCPOU, the line staff union, filing a trade dispute, Mr Sinclair said he did not view the situation as "a fight".

He urged both of BTC's trade unions to work with him to "change the paradigm" as Aliv continues to seize mobile market share in an area where the former state-owned incumbent once enjoyed a lucrative monopoly.

Mr Sinclair, a Jamaican, stressed the need for partnership while confirming he would have preferred that union officials had been a little "less public" over their disagreements with the company.

Both the BCPOU and the Bahamas Communications and Public Managers Union, the middle managers' union, have recently expressed concerns over further downsizing at the telecommunications company, with Mr Sinclair warning that he cannot allow under-performing workers to hold the company back.

"Colleagues who are adding value, who are setting the house on fire, don't have anything to worry about," he said of job security. "We're not going to separate from people who are going to add value to the business. There are others who are not adding any value; who are holding us back. If you know that's where you fall then, yes, you should be anxious and that's the type of business we have to run in a competitive environment.

In an interview with Tribune Business, Mr Sinclair explained he was was hoping to prove that BTC's relationship with the unions was advantageous. "My competitor doesn't have the luxury of having partners like my union partners to contend with, and I want to prove that is a disadvantage for them and not an advantage, but it will take more work clearly," he said.

"I've been on the ground here about two-and-a-half months now. In that time I have met with our union partners about three times face-to-face already. That was in furtherance of a clear strategy I have to increase the transparency around running this business, and to encourage them to become partners with me in the process of running this business."

Mr Sinclair described The Bahamas' now fully-liberalised telecommunications market as "highly competitive", and acknowledged that BTC and its current business model were struggling to adjust.

"We recently liberalised and we are transitioning into a highly competitive environment. I think we have a proud legacy as a business in the telecommunications sector in The Bahamas. It's a legacy we rightly ought to be proud of, and one I take very seriously," he added.

"We are in a very competitive environment, and we have come to that environment late. Most of the other operators in the region were just like us here at BTC, being partly government owned, had the market all to themselves and had to transition to a competitive environment. The thing is that most of the other operators have done that 10-12 years ago. We are just doing it today, and so the tension and challenges are apparent."

Mr Sinclair called on both the line staff and management union to work with BTC to boost its competitiveness. "I would have preferred if our partners had been a little less public with our disagreement," he added. "I have certainly tried to bring a spirit of transparency and openness to our relationship.

"It's a relationship which has been made even more challenging by the fact that my intense competitor [Aliv and Cable Bahamas] does not have the benefit of union partnerships to contend with, and are able to adjust their cost and, accordingly, have priced their products in a way that continues to eat away at my market share."

BTC's subscriber numbers at September 30, 2018, support Aliv's claim to have seized more than one-third of all Bahamian mobile market subscribers. BTC was shown to have 228,300 total subscribers at that date, with 89 percent of 203,000 of that client base concentrated in pre-paid customers.

Damian Blackburn, Aliv's top executive, pegged its subscriber base at 125,000 which, when combined with BTC's numbers, gives The Bahamas' second mobile operator a 35.4 percent market share - placing it on track to hit its target of 39 percent share by end-June 2019.

BTC's once-lucrative mobile monopoly generated almost three-quarters of its annul revenues, along with the bulk of its profits, and it has been unable to make inroads into Cable Bahamas' TV and Internet dominance to compensate for the market share loss to Aliv.

Liberty Latin America (LiLAC), BTC's ultimate parent, recently expressed hope that its mobile subscriber loss "will bottom out in 2019" after another 12,400 customers exited in this year's third quarter.

Mr Sinclair, meanwhile, said: "What I said to my union partners right from the start is: Let us create a model that shows not just The Bahamas, but the region, that working in partnership between the businesses and unions can actually produce a high-performing and best-performing organisation. Let's change the paradigm and the view about how unions and businesses work together, because I truly believe that if we work together and get through this tough transition period in a way that is progressive we can set a model for other to emulate."

He added: "I want to be clear that I don't consider this a fight. They are vigorously advocating for their members and ensuring that their members' rights are protected, and they have a proud tradition of doing that. Let's work together to change the paradigm.

"I blame myself. The three times I met face-to-face may have not been enough. We may need to meet and discuss and go through these issues a bit more. I am convinced that the way to go is to develop a partnership between the labour and the business that is going to be productive, progressive and yield a company that is best-performing."