There is no possibility that employees of LIME Turks and Caicos will be laid off.
The assurance came from General Manager of LIME TCI Mr. Drexwell Seymour in response to a regional story that the Dominica Public Service Union (DPSU) is calling on Caribbean governments to intervene to stop plans by the British telecommunications giant Cable and Wireless, which operates in the Caribbean under the brand LIME, to lay off employees across the region.
“At this point, we want to state that the redundancy and layoff at LIME, and I’m talking regionally, it has really reached a stage where enough is enough,” DPSU general secretary told the Dominica-based website, DA VIBES.
“We think it has reached a point where we believe that the governments of the respective countries need to intervene. In Dominica, that is even more important since Dominica has some shares in the company,” he noted.
According to Letang at least 12 workers there will be sent home and the public cannot continue to support the notion that the only way a company’s finances can be improved by “laying off employees who have spent all their lives at that institution, making so much sacrifices for that institution.”
He told the website that the DPSU, along with other regional unions have discussed the matter with LIME’s regional leaders and have also received assistance from an international trade union organization.
“I believe that we really need to go further than that to see how we can put a stop to that kind of practice because it is not helping the region, it is not helping employees, it’s not helping their families,” Letang added.
Premier Dr. Rufus Ewing also told RTC News that there has been no such correspondence to his office regarding such a request to intervene to stop plans by the telecommunications giant Cable and Wireless, which operates in the Caribbean under the brand LIME, to lay off employees across the region.
Mr. Seymour said a number of employees voluntarily accepted packages last year, but reiterated that there are no plans to lay off any of his staff.
