468 em­ploy­ees from TSTT have re­ceived re­trench­ment no­tices. Ac­cord­ing to a press re­lease from TSTT,  403 em­ploy­ees, com­pris­ing a mix of ju­nior and se­nior staff and es­tate po­lice of­fi­cers will re­ceive pay­ment in lieu of the reg­u­la­to­ry 45 days’ no­tice. 

The fol­low­ing is a press re­lease from TSTT:

Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions Ser­vices of Trinidad and To­ba­go Lim­it­ed (TSTT), to­day ini­ti­at­ed 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. 

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. The com­pa­ny en­gaged with the RMUs and its em­ploy­ees by meet­ing vir­tu­al­ly and by ex­change of com­mu­ni­ca­tion on mat­ters re­lat­ed to the need for change, the ra­tio­nale for the pro­posed struc­ture, and its staffing.

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.
In the fi­nan­cial year end­ed 31st March 2021, TSTT’s rev­enue fell by TT$453 mil­lion - 18% less than the pri­or year.

This ma­te­r­i­al de­cline was part­ly due to is­sues re­lat­ed to the Covid-19 pan­dem­ic and a com­bi­na­tion of eco­nom­ic and tech­no­log­i­cal fac­tors both unique to the Trinidad and To­ba­go mar­ket as a di­rect re­sult of the glob­al dig­i­tal rev­o­lu­tion in the telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions in­dus­try. Re­gion­al­ly and in­ter­na­tion­al­ly, net­works are un­der pres­sure: in­ter­net traf­fic is grow­ing ex­po­nen­tial­ly, but the price per gi­ga­byte is de­clin­ing al­most as rapid­ly, and the re­sult is a down­ward pres­sure on rev­enue growth and mar­gins.

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.”
 
The re­struc­tur­ing ex­er­cise is ex­pect­ed to re­sult in a more ef­fi­cient, cus­tomer-fo­cused and mod­ernised or­gan­i­sa­tion.