The Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions Ser­vices of T&T (TSTT) is call­ing out re­trenched work­ers to fix lines for cus­tomers, as they do not have any­one to do re­pairs in crit­i­cal ar­eas, says Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Work­ers Union (CWU) Pres­i­dent Clyde El­der.

How­ev­er, A TSTT of­fi­cial yes­ter­day de­nied this, say­ing on­ly that "TSTT has not called out any re­trenched em­ploy­ee to ef­fect re­pairs."

El­der, mean­while, said it was iron­ic that the very same work­ers whom they had pre­sent­ed with re­trench­ment let­ters on Tues­day were the same ones they had to call out to ef­fect re­pairs just two days lat­er.

The CWU pres­i­dent dis­missed con­cerns by TSTT and Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Mar­vin Gon­za­les that ag­griev­ed work­ers might sab­o­tage the com­pa­ny’s op­er­a­tions.

He said, "TSTT is now call­ing back out peo­ple to fix lines be­cause they do not have any­one to do re­pairs in crit­i­cal ar­eas.

"The work­ers are com­ing to work every day to fix peo­ple’s lines. Peo­ple who want to sab­o­tage do not do that.

"How can you fear sab­o­tage and then turn around and call back out the same peo­ple you fear sab­o­tage from?" El­der ques­tioned.

The union leader said the move to re­trench hun­dreds of em­ploy­ees from TSTT has not been well-thought-out, and union of­fi­cials have warned that it could land the com­pa­ny in fur­ther trou­ble if it is not prop­er­ly ex­e­cut­ed.

He said be­cause of the way they did it, "TSTT’s sys­tems and ser­vices are in a com­plete mess."

El­der said cus­tomers are out of ser­vice and there is no way to rec­ti­fy the sit­u­a­tion right now. "There were plen­ty of ca­ble cuts tak­ing place be­fore this re­trench­ment, we were com­plain­ing about it.

"Van­dals are steal­ing cop­per ca­bles, and they are cut­ting both the fi­bre op­tic and cop­per ca­bles not know­ing the dif­fer­ence, and that is cre­at­ing a se­ri­ous prob­lem in pro­vid­ing ser­vice to cus­tomers."

He said it was a re­al­i­ty that cus­tomers may opt to switch to an­oth­er provider if they are un­hap­py with TSTT’s ser­vice, which would lead to a fur­ther de­cline in rev­enue.

Mean­while, gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials have said TSTT will be en­hanc­ing and up­grad­ing its tech­nol­o­gy and as such, will not need line tech­ni­cians and oth­er staff as this type of in­fra­struc­ture is phased out.

In­di­cat­ing not every­one was against the move to down­size, El­der said they re­main com­mit­ted to the job and en­sur­ing TSTT’s op­er­a­tions are not dis­rupt­ed or com­pro­mised in any way.

A to­tal of 468 em­ploy­ees–com­pris­ing both ju­nior and se­nior staff–were hand­ed re­trench­ment let­ters on June 1. Of this num­ber, 376 are mem­bers of the bar­gain­ing unit.

The CWU was suc­cess­ful in ob­tain­ing an in­junc­tion from the In­dus­tri­al Court the same day,  ef­fec­tive­ly halt­ing the ex­er­cise. The union will re­turn to court on June 14.

Mean­while, TSTT em­ploy­ees are ranked among the high­est paid in the pub­lic sec­tor, which trans­lates to huge month­ly rev­enue for the Gov­ern­ment.

El­der agreed this re­trench­ment would have a rip­ple ef­fect and "re­sult in a greater bur­den be­ing placed on the Na­tion­al In­sur­ance Board (NIB) and its oth­er ser­vices."

Re­fer­ring to the cur­rent chal­lenges be­ing faced by the NIB in terms of sat­is­fy­ing its com­mit­ments, name­ly pen­sions and oth­er ben­e­fits, El­der said T&T’s econ­o­my would be fur­ther neg­a­tive­ly im­pact­ed by this move.

He said, "If TSTT does not ar­rest this poor­ly, not at all thought-out re­trench­ment pro­ce­dure, then the com­pa­ny will be in some se­ri­ous trou­ble."

El­der said du­ties would now be heaped on the shoul­ders of the re­main­ing em­ploy­ees which was un­fair, bur­den­some and over­whelm­ing.

This, he said, could lead to fur­ther men­tal health is­sues aris­ing among the re­main­ing work­force.

A TSTT of­fi­cial said yes­ter­day on­ly that "TSTT has not called out any re­trenched em­ploy­ee to ef­fect re­pairs."

De­part­ments and af­fect­ed em­ploy­ees:

1. Chief Fi­nan­cial Of­fice - 33

2. Chief Le­gal Coun­sel & Cor­po­rate Sec­re­tary Of­fice - 2

3. Chief Tech­nol­o­gy Of­fice - 35

4. Emerg­ing Ser­vices - 2

5. En­ter­prise Ser­vices - 64

6. Shared Ser­vices - 68

7. Tra­di­tion­al Ser­vices - 130

8. Wire­less Ser­vices - 134