Fate of LIME employees in SVG unknown

It may be too soon to say what will be the fate of employees of telecommunications company LIME in St Vincent and the Grenadines, following massive job cuts by the company in Barbados and Jamaica.{{more}}

LIME country manager Leslie Jack, in an interview on Wednesday, confirmed that LIME is in discussions with Swedish company Ericsson, which is said to be taking over some of LIME’s technical services in some neighbouring territories.

Jack, however, said that these discussions were in “the incubator stage”.

“Once we have reached a point of clarity, then we would communicate this to the key stakeholders,” Jack explained.

He said that it is too early to determine how many local employees could potentially be affected, saying that management needed to be “cognizant of how it protected staff.”

According to a report in the Barbados Nation, as a result of the deal with Ericsson, 200 LIME employees in Barbados will go home at the end of this month. The affected employees are from LIME’s Service Support and Delivery and associated customer support teams.

In May this year, some 305 LIME employees in Jamaica were also laid off. According to an article which appeared in the Jamaican press, about 305 employees from LIME’s field services department were affected under the terms of the seven-year agreement with Ericsson.

According to reports, LIME has entered into an exclusive managed services agreement with Ericsson, in an effort to restructure its operations and under the deal, which is to take effect October 1, Ericsson will manage the external component of LIME’s fixed, mobile, Internet and data networks.

In both Barbados and Jamaica, laid off workers are being given the opportunity to reapply to become part of Ericsson’s team of global network of professionals. (DD)