The Tribune

By DANA SMITH dsmith@tribunemedia.net SALARY negotiations between the Bahamas Telecommunications Company and the union representing its workers has reached an impasse, according to a statement released by the union's president yesterday. The Bahamas Communications and Public Officers Union's (BCPOU) new statement comes less than a week after union members warned of possible action if industrial agreement negotiations fail. The government privatised BTC last April with the sale of 51 per cent of its shares to Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC). "Since the privatization of BTC, a number of legacy issues have been resolved amicably and the union has successfully negotiated disengagement packages for employees during the downsizing exercise," BCPOU president Bernard Evans said. "The next major item on the agenda was the negotiation of a new Industrial Agreement, which expired September 30, 2010. Negotiations between Cable & Wireless and the BCPOU began in earnest in early November 2011. Although we have been able to agree on most of the articles that will form the new agreement, we have reached an impasse on the matter of salary increases in spite of our best effort to negotiate in good faith." He said the BCPOU "finds it difficult" to accept the management's reported claim that it cannot afford a "reasonable salary increase" because of "the many cost-cutting and efficiency based initiatives that the BTC has undertaken in the past year". Mr Evans pointed to a Price Waterhouse Coopers report, reportedly undertaken by BTC which reviewed employees salaries. "(The) report revealed over 90 per cent of BTC's line staff in our bargaining unit are underpaid based on 75th percentile compared with similar companies nationally and regionally," he said. Mr Evans said CWC gained advantages upon the sale of BTC, including a two per cent fixed management fee of gross revenue, "multiple" contracts for foreign consultants and contractual workers, recognition of $6 million in bonus payments, and the control of about 70 per cent of the net profit over the next two years. Last week, BTC CEO Geoff Houston reiterated the company's ambition to shape an Industrial Agreement "that is customer and performance driven, and anchored by a market-leading employee proposition". He said: "The discussions we have been having with our union partners have always been around these themes. So my hope is that while we may differ on the specifics of some parts of the agreement, we all manage to keep in our sights these principles which are critical to succeed against agile and aggressive competition now and in the near future." The CEO noted that management will continue to negotiate in good faith and do all it can to keep the communications open and up front.