The Tribune

The Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) yesterday branded a trade union leader’s attack on its labour policies as “frankly appalling”, describing them as “irresponsible” and unwarranted.

Geoff Houston, BTC’s chief executive, in a statement to the media described remarks by Bernard Evans, head of the Bahamas Communications and Public Officers Union (BCPOU), which represents the company’s line staff, as “extraordinarily misleading”.

Unable to understand what would have prompted such comments, Mr Houston said: “We have taken very concrete actions to build and maintain a positive working atmosphere at BTC,0 while at the same time encouraging our colleagues to understand that BTC must be an efficient, customer driven, customer-focused organisation.”

“We have approved pay raises in the last labour agreements at the time when other businesses were keeping pay scales flat or reducing benefits.

“We have facilitated 160-plus promotions, clearing up issues, some of which dated back for four or five years. We have regular correspondence that goes out from myself and from the management team to keep staff members informed and aware of what is happening in BTC,” Mr Houston added.

“The executive team meets with the staff through our periodic road shows, where every single member of staff is afforded the opportunity to ask myself and other executives any question they like.

“And I am pleased to say that the staff use these channels to very bluntly and honestly tell us about the issues they are having, and to make very positive recommendations as to where the company should go.”

“The simple truth of the matter is that BTC is going through a period of transition that challenges all of us to rethink how we work and how we behave within the organiaation. We are asking the team members – like their private sector counterparts across the Bahamas – to become customer-focused and performance driven.

“We are providing the human resource support and the professional training to aid this transition. As a company we know that we must wow and delight our customers every time, and that the way in which we operate must be convenient to the customer - and not what is convenient just to BTC. The old way of doing business has to change.”

Mr Evans last week said, in relation to BTC, that “we have reached a point where our people are dying”, and that he was surprised “more are not falling out on the job”.

Alleging that BTC staff morale was at “an all-time low”, Mr Evans said majority shareholder, Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC) had “proven in the worst way” all the union’s concerns, and that the company needed to be “rescued from the hands of evil”.

Blasting back, Mr Houston said in his statement: “We have, and will, continue to encourage our union partners to work together with us as we make this journey.

“And the journey is not served well by irresponsible and, frankly appalling, references to ‘rape’ of the company and ‘employees dying on the job’.

“As a management team we believe that our collective energies are better served on finding ways that allow us to provide world-class customer service, while optimising the opportunities of growth, development and reward of our BTC team members.”