LIME to peel off 15 employees

Fifteen employees of telecommunications provider, LIME, will be exiting the company this month with redundancy packages.{{more}}

The official announcement was made on Tuesday by LIME’s Country Manager, Leslie Jack, during a press conference held at the company’s conference room in Kingstown.

According to Jack, eleven of the employees have already been communicated to and before the end of the month, the remaining four are expected to receive confirmation.

Jack told reporters that a few years ago, LIME embarked on a three-pronged strategy to enhance the business.

The three areas of focus were customers, cost and accountability.

It is against this three-pronged strategy, Jack said, that they have been in consultation with the employees, the Commercial Technical and Allied Workers Union (CTAWU) and other key stakeholders as to how to manage the internal restructuring of the business.

“Like all businesses, we have to make tough decisions in tough times. And the decision to offer redundancy, it was not an easy situation for me personally.

“I’ve worked with this business for some twelve years, so I’ve earned some friends and also some advocates. So, to have that type of discussion with them around exiting the business was really not an easy task… But I want to assure everyone that the decisions included the usual engagement of all relevant stakeholders,” he said.

Jack also explained that LIME has worked with the CTAWU as a key stakeholder over the last few months for the most suitable options and in some cases options to ensure they minimize the impact of colleagues exiting the business and to preserve the full benefits of colleagues affected.

“Our discussions with the union were always cordial and the union has been very supportive during these discussions. Thanks to their input and suggestions, we have collectively agreed on some initiatives that will support the business during the course of this financial year and beyond. And of course, one such initiative… is where we offered packages to some of the senior staff within the organization,” the country manager said.

He thanked those who will be parting ways with LIME for their support and contribution towards the company.

“We see them as an integral part of the business and we see this business as an integral part of the development of St Vincent and the Grenadines,” he added.

Acting General Secretary of the CTAWU Joseph Burns Bonadie said that, over the years, the Union had set up what is called a consultative mechanism between the company and the Union.

“I can safely say that of all the countries of the region, our consultative mechanism was the one that worked. We met on time. We were informed of all the movements taking place within LIME throughout the region and we gave our input.

“We got to this particular aspect of the LIME operation, as you would know from reading in the press that LIME is restructuring,” Bonadie said.

He revealed that an offer was made to employees in all the LIME operations in the region.

Following consultations between the union and LIME top brass, Bonadie said, the decision was taken to offer these redundancy packages to those employees.

“LIME provided all the unions with all the data of its operation over the past four years…,” the Union boss said.

Bonadie said there were a number of employees who had indicated to the company, a long time ago, their desire to leave and in the consultation process, it was agreed that consideration should be also given to those persons who had indicated to management that they wanted to go.

“We are here today because the separation of the employees of LIME was done on a mutually agreed basis,” he stated. (AA)