The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The trade union representing the Bahamas Telecommunications Company’s (BTC) line staff yesterday said it was “a bit disappointed” that the Government had failed to regain Board control, having hoped this would provide a bulwark against further job losses.

Bernard Evans, the Bahamas Communications and Public Officers Union’s (BCPOU) head, said its members had hoped that, by regaining Board control, the Government would gain “the power to intervene” as Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC) presses ahead with its Caribbean-wide restructuring.

Despite assurances from BTC’s chief executive, Geoff Houston, that lay-offs of the nature seen in Jamaica, Barbados and the Turks & Caicos Islands would not occur in the Bahamas, Mr Evans said his union was “very, very concerned”.

“We understand it’s the best the Government can do,” Mr Evans said of the Christie administration’s revised agreement with CWC, which will see the latter place slightly less than 2 per cent of its BTC stake into a foundation.

“What we were hoping is that the Government would regain Board control, not management control, which we thought would be out of their hands. That’s what we had hoped for,” the BCPOU chief added.

“We are a bit disappointed, because what happened is that CWC have done a number of head count reductions across the Caribbean.

“We just wanted somehow for the Government to have some power to intervene and not allow that to happen here, given that we have already gone through a Voluntary Separation (VSEP) exercise.” The VSEP was carried out in the aftermath of BTC’s April 2011 privatisation to ‘right size’ its staffing levels.

In reality, CWC was never likely to relinquish Board control. Had it done so, apart from allowing the Government to dictate BTC’s corporate direction and strategy, it would also have had to answer to the markets and its shareholders.

This is because a loss of Board control would mean CWC is no longer able to include BTC’s results in its group financials. The Bahamas, with its US$ peg, has become increasingly important to its controlling shareholder, which is now focused almost entirely on the Caribbean and Central America.

Still, Mr Evans alluded to the increasing alarm among BCPOU members that CWC’s aggressive Caribbean restructuring may find its way to BTC and the Bahamas.

Suggesting that CWC’s regional affiliate, LIME, released 50 per cent of its Turks & Caicos staff in December, Mr Evans told Tribune Business: “We are very concerned, even though Mr Houston’s been quite a gentleman all along, as he said there was no plan to do that here.

“They’ve not put that into writing, and we hoped the Government would have some control to prevent that from happening, as there are very few jobs here where you can find gainful employment.

“We’re still very concerned about it. We will still agitate to the Government, and the Board members that represent the Government, for some kind of surety that this will not happen in the Bahamas.”

CWC controls BTC’s Board with four directors, while the Government’s three seats are held by Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) chairman Bradley Roberts; National Insurance Board (NIB) chair Rowena Bethel; and former BTC chief executive, Leon Williams.

Mr Evans, meanwhile, said the BCPOU had posted on its walls a copy of a Tribune Business article quoting CWC’s chief financial officer, Tim Pennington, in which he said the Bahamas would “not be immune” from CWC’s restructuring plans.

“While Mr Houston is saying he hopes that doesn’t happen, he doesn’t have the final say,” the BCPOU president added.

“The Government does not have Board control, and we’re a little disappointed in that, but we applaud the Government for doing all it could.

“Given what the Prime Minister was able to hammer out through Franklyn Wilson and the negotiating team, we accept what they were able to do, sort of, but we’re not happy with it. They’ve not given us the support we thought we’d get from Board level.”

Mr Evans also expressed concerns about a change in the LIME/CWC management structure, which will now see Mr Houston report to LIME’s Caribbean head, rather than directly to CWC’s chief executive, Phil Bentley.

“We were starting to get on the road with Mr Houston,” Mr Evans said in regard to the union’s relationship with top BTC management.

He added, though, that while the BTC chief executive had previously reported directly to former CWC chief executive, Tony Rice, he was now required to go through a new management layer before reaching the latter’s successor.

“We have some concerns about that,” Mr Evans added. “There are a number of changes as we speak, and that’s what concerns us.”