Ruling party blasts Opposition over job-loss threats at privatised BTC

THE RULING Free National Movement (FNM) has accused the main opposition Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) of encouraging unrest in The Bahamas as the fallout continues from the privatisation of the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC).

The British-owned Cable and Wireless Communications Plc (CWC) acquired a controlling 51 per cent share of the company and the PLP said that it had received information that CWC has given notice to the employees of BTC of its intent to downsize the company to the tune of 600 employees by May of this year.

"If this is true, the government would have failed in protecting the welfare of the employees at BTC during the privatisation exercise.

"This is unwelcomed and unsettling news to the employees of BTC and a source of concern to the PLP, given the tough economic times we live in," the PLP added.

BTC's chief executive officer Geoff Houston has denied the PLP's statement regarding the number of workers to be sent home.

The ruling party of Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham in a statement on Monday said that having lost the national debate on the BTC privatisation issue and the further liberalisation of the telecommunications sector, the PLP is manufacturing claims about the BTC/CWC partnership.

It said the PLP's propaganda machine has developed a campaign intended to frighten employees at BTC "and sow unrest in the country", and that the claims were an extension of the PLP's "reckless and irresponsible behaviour during the BTC debate.

"That behaviour included paying demonstrators, among them individuals with known criminal backgrounds, to create havoc during protests on Bay Street which threatened to overrun a police barricade and the precincts of the House of Assembly," the FNM said.

The ruling party said that to stoop so low as to frighten BTC employees "deserves contempt by the Bahamian people and the employees of the company.

"It is also a further indication, as has been previously stated, that the Opposition cares little about the employees at BTC, except as pawns in its attempt to grab power at any cost," the FNM statement added.

Earlier this month, The Bahamas government said it had completed the privatisation of the BTC with Prime Minister Ingraham, describing the event as "a very long journey and at times a difficult journey".

Under the agreement, CWC paid US$210 million for the majority share, "as well as in kind and cash completion dividends from BTC amounting to US$14.3 million".

- CMC