By Sue-Ann Wayow
DESPITE attempts for workers not to lose their jobs, over 400 employees with the Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago Limited (TSTT) have been fired.
On Tuesday, TSTT in press release stated that it began its “restructuring exercise” with 468 employees receiving retrenchment notices.
Of this number, 403 employees, comprising a mix of junior and senior staff and estate police officers will, in keeping with the Collective Agreements with their representative unions, each receive payment in lieu of the regulatory 45 days’ notice.
The company stated that on January 17, 2022, TSTT invited its employee representative unions to consultations regarding the proposed restructuring and refinement of its operating/business model.
Consultations with employees and the representative majority unions, including the Communications Workers’ Union (CWU) and Estate Police Association (EPA) began on February 1 and were conducted “in good faith and in line with best Industrial Relations practice,” TSTT stated.
The need to restructure TSTT is urgent and critical, necessitated both by the impact of challenging economic conditions brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic and the drastic effect of changes in technology on the company’s operation and performance, TSTT had stated.
It reiterated that in the financial year ended March 2021, TSTT’s revenue fell by TT$453 million – 18% less than the prior year.
TSTT CEO Lisa Agard said, “Given our challenges, TSTT has no option but to restructure to remain competitive. We are moving to an operating model that is more in line with industry benchmarks, and one that will enable us to adapt and evolve with the constant developments in technology. This is our only option if we are to return to sustainable profitability.
“In devising the new organisation TSTT leveraged the model of “customer journeys” to envision what a new, streamlined, customer-obsessed organisation could look like, post-restructuring. TSTT believes that it has developed a dynamic and visionary future-state organisation that leverages the significant Capital investments that the Company has made in the technology areas, leading to its networks being at today’s cutting-edge level and able to support growth in the foreseeable future.”
According to TSTT, the restructuring exercise is expected to result in a more efficient, customer-focused and modernised organisation.
The CWU had been clamouring for TSTT not to fire workers as a means of retaining business.
In March, in Parliament Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley said it was too early to say how many employees would have been terminated.
He said, “We will await the outcome in the discussions in the proper and normal manner.”
AZP News was told that employees received their notification via email and effective June 1, are no longer employed by the company.
