The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas Telecommunications Company’s (BTC) chief executive has denied that any contract workers have been terminated with “over 90 percent” complying with its COVID policies.

Andre Foster told Tribune Business that “there’s a lot of misinformation” surrounding BTC’s COVID-19 vaccination stance amid allegations that third-party vendors and contract workers are being terminated if they refuse to become fully inoculated.

Pointing out that BTC’s unionised workforce, at both management and line staff levels, is unaffected by the controversy, he explained that contract workers and third-party vendors are not being terminated from their assignments if they are unvaccinated.

However, once their contracts are completed, they will not be hired for new tasks if they are non-compliant with BTC’s requirements. Mr Foster said the carrier, which is 49 percent owned by the Government, has also given contract workers two exemptions from the vaccination requirement - religious and medical grounds.

“It’s very important for us that we give confidence in the community that employees are not putting customers at risk of COVID spread,” he told this newspaper. “We gave each contract workers a choice of what is suitable for them. We didn’t terminate them.

“We have offered and extended to contract workers two exemptions; religious and medical. Over 90 percent of contractors have brought back into the company with no issue whatsoever in complying with the policy or taking advantage of these exemptions. We’re not alone in that regard. Many other companies have taken a similar stance.”

Mr Foster said BTC had spoken to the Department of Labour to ensure its contract worker policy did not breach Bahamian law or regulations, and reiterated: “If you’re on an existing contract and joined the company in November, and are on a six-month term, we would not approach a person on contract and terminate.

“There’ll be no termination from the perspective of removing that contract. It’s at that point of renewal that you must comply or request or submit for an exemption.” Mr Foster said BTC and its parent companies had not terminated any employee during the pandemic, but added: “It’s about keeping staff members and customers safe.

“The pandemic taught us a lot, and the health of customers and employees is paramount for business survival.” Sherry Benjamin, the Bahamas Communications and Public Officers Union’s (BCPOU) president, told Tribune Business she understood more than 15 contract workers had lost their positions due to the company’s COVID vaccination policy.

The union represents BTC’s full-time line staff and, even though its industrial agreement does not cover contract workers, Ms Benjamin said she raised the matter with the Prime Minister when she met with him the week before last.

“I was asking the Prime Minister to use the Government’s influence to get them to allow contract workers not vaccinated to bring in a weekly test instead of terminating them because they are not vaccinated,” she said. “He asked me to ask them to get vaccinated.”

Ms Benjamin said the Government, as 49 percent shareholder in BTC, was effectively being “complicit in discrimination” against BTC’s unvaccinated contract workers. “I expressed to the Prime Minister that we should be more concerned whether or not these persons are carrying COVID-19 as opposed to being vaccinated,” she added. “Whether you are vaccinated or not you can still carry it or spread it.”