Nearly all GTT workers being transferred to new entity are on contract - union

Ninety-nine percent of the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph (GTT) employees who will be transferred to the new customer service business, Arrowhead Communications Incorporated by next month are contracted workers who will be paid all their benefits, GPTWU President, Harold Shepherd said.

During a telephone interview with Stabroek News on Thursday, Shepherd said that five out of the 214 employees who will be transferred are members of the Guyana Postal and Telecommunications Workers Union (GPTWU).

“Outside of the five from the union, you have others who are permanent but they are not within the union because they are like managers and supervisors and so on…that are being transferred,” Shepherd said.

The employees, he said will be transferred to the new company with all their benefits.

“…They will be transferred to this new company with all of their benefits from GTT….So they will continue to get all their benefits and everything,” he explained.

According to Shepherd, no consultations was held with the GPTWU prior to the decision being made.

In fact, he said the union was only informed about the decision to transfer the employees on Wednesday, the day of the announcement. “There was no prior engagement with the union in relation to this transfer but we had a meeting,” he said.

However, if the need arises, Shepherd said there will be further engagements with the aim of having a better understanding of the situation. “Obviously as the union we would have preferred for the employees to remain with GTT,” Shepherd said.

He also noted that the union did not have any sort of engagement with the employees involved to ascertain their opinions about the recent decision. “We were told out of nature of what decision that management has taken,” Shepherd said.

GTT and its shareholder, US Virgin Islands-based Atlantic Tele-Network (ATN) on Wednesday announced the launch of Arrowhead Communications, which it said will see 214 of its employees being transferred by June this year.

In a statement, GTT said that all 214 persons in its Customer Care team, servicing its needs and those of other subsidiaries of ATN in the USA, Bermuda and US Virgin Islands, will be transitioned to and employed by the Arrowhead Communications Inc.

“This will create the new heart of a world class operation that Arrowhead will continue to grow providing an expanding level of world class customer engagement and professional support services to its clients”, GTT said.

Guyanese, Shem Erskine, is the General Manager of Arrowhead. The Arrowhead business will be operational from June 12, 2022.

Apart from transitioning the 214-person team to the Arrowhead entity, GTT said other priorities will be to develop a new state of the art physical Customer Care facility in New Amsterdam that will supplement existing facilities in Georgetown and work seamlessly with Arrowhead’s new hybrid, flexible work from home team.

They will also roll out new services and attract new clients creating job opportunities for hundreds of Guyanese in multiple regions.

GTT said it has been actively involved in the evolution of customer service centres in Guyana, with a history that goes back over 30 years.