The Tribune

By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Deputy Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas Communications and Public Officers Union will continue to publicly reject the leadership of BTC CEO Garfield Sinclair until he resigns, insisting staff refuse to work with him moving forward.

Speaking to The Tribune yesterday, BCPOU President Dino Rolle said the CEO has not brought anything to the table to spark growth at the telecommunications provider. He contended BTC has suffered loss because of this “lack of leadership”.

The union has continued to rail against BTC’s leadership after its parent company Liberty Latin America’s CEO Balan Nair had to apologise to Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis and Bahamian workers last week after remarks seen as disparaging about both went viral on social media.

BTC staff also held a lunch hour protest on Friday airing concerns about the company’s leadership. They have said they also want Mr Nair to step down.

Mr Rolle said: “The staff came out on their own right Friday to express for themselves how disappointed they are with the lack of leadership by Balan Nair who sought to pit the Bahamas employees against the Jamaican employees using this plantation practise and they stood up against that and for the lack of leadership in that regard and in particular the lack of leadership that we’ve experienced over the last year since we have had Garfield Sinclair as CEO.

“We are firmly against continuing the relationship with Mr Sinclair because we believe that he has caused BTC to be wrongfully criticised by his boss Balan Nair. We certainly want him gone and we are going to continue our actions, our public positions until Mr Sinclair resigns.

“We are not interested in working for him anymore.”

He said the relationship between staff and Mr Sinclair has been strained for almost a year.

“Since Mr Sinclair came in August of last year just on landing he described the workers as dead, that he came to get rid of the dead wood. The engine on his plane hadn’t even cut off good yet when he made that statement.

“That caused friction within the relationship from the beginning. The staff would have given Mr Sinclair the opportunity to see what it is that he was bringing to the table to grow this business since he spoke so negatively.

“So we have been at the table and he has yet to bring anything to the table. It’s a lack of leadership from him and a lack of a proper capital investment by Balan Nair and his Liberty Latin America team, but particularly a lack of leadership by Mr Garfield Sinclair.”

On Saturday The Nassau Guardian reported that a meeting with BTC leadership to discuss voluntary separation packages for employees did not go well.

However, the daily said Mr Sinclair insisted: “We’ve never had an involuntary exercise. All we’ve ever had in trying to reshape our operating model here is voluntary exercises. So, is there a likelihood that we would engage in one again? Absolutely, but it will be voluntary.”

See Tribune Business.