The Tribune

BTC CEO Geoff Houston denied allegations by the Bahamas Communications and Public Officers Union that the telecoms company was planning to lay off staff at the corporation.

Mr Houston, in a statement issued to the press yesterday, called the allegations, made by BCPOU leader Bernard Evans, “erroneous and reckless”.

“Unfortunately, we are finding ourselves having to take time to address ludicrous and downright false assertions being made by Mr Evans, who we are sure knows better. BTC Management and staff have been working hard on the transformation of the company – addressing the network issues and seeking to improve customer care. And while we are hard at work trying to deliver better service to our customers, we have leadership of our non-management union engaged in what can best be described as mischievous efforts to undermine team morale and to distract from the very important tasks of making things better for our BTC customers and our BTC team members,” Mr Houston said.

The CEO said he had addressed BTC team members throughout the country in person a few months ago to tell staff that while BTC must become more efficient in an increasingly competitive market, the company is working hard to improve and build its business so that they can have new, more exciting opportunities within the company.

“Also, while BTC seeks to avoid discussion on the issue of the compensation of individuals within the company because we appreciate how important it is for confidentiality purposes, we are compelled to point out that the allegations made by Mr Evans regarding the half million dollar average compensation for executives of BTC are completely absurd and wholly false,” Mr Houston said.