BTL workers want stake in company
Posted: 30/07/2010 - 10:51 AM
Author: Adele Ramos - adelescribe@gmail.com
The quest by the 500 workers of Belize Telemedia Limited (BTL) for a slice of the company’s shareholding pie enters a new era, as workers are now seeking legal counsel to decide on the best way to acquire an interest in the country’s longest-standing telecommunications enterprise.
At a meeting held on Saturday, July 24, four union reps, headed by Emily Audinett, were assigned to The Shares Committee, and they have been tasked with doing the groundwork to help the workers make an informed decision on the way forward. They are also due to meet with an attorney, whom they decline to name at this time.
One member of that committee, Paul Perriott, Vice President of the Belize Communications Workers Union, told Amandala Thursday that he does not like the idea of workers having to source funding to purchase the BTL shares and starting the process from scratch.
Perriott points out that the Barrow administration has acquired Sunshine Holdings, which now holds the 23% shares that the workers had been trying to purchase years ago.
Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Dean Barrow and BTL chairman Nestor Vasquez were two of the persons who had been with the union in those negotiations with ex-Prime Minister Said Musa and former Attorney General Godfrey Smith. Smith is the current attorney of the BTL Employees Trust, which is claiming compensation for the Sunshine shares from the Government of Belize, but which is also challenging the constitutionality of the take-over.
Perriott said that he agrees with the government takeover of Telemedia, but he furthermore believes that now that the Barrow administration is in charge, they can easily facilitate the workers to acquire those shares in BTL.
Barrow has maintained that the prospectus for divestment should go out at the end of September 2010. Vasquez has told the media that workers are welcome to make their bid for the shares.
Of note is that the BTL Employees Trust, which claims ownership of the Sunshine shares, has indicated on its website that by February 2011 they could win their appeal, which would mean that “all matters prior to the nationalization should be returned to their original state.”
It contends that government must “either return the shares (per constitutional challenge) or pay the full value of Sunshine Holdings.”
The share price, claims the trust, is $10 each—a net of BZ$111 million. When the net total outstanding debts of BZ$31 million are paid, said the trust, the net value of the shares would be BZ$80 million.
The company trustees are former BTL chairman, Keith Arnold, and former chairman of the executive committee, Dean Boyce.
Boyce has written letters to Vasquez requesting a meeting with him and BTL workers “to iron out differences of opinion with respect to the current position.”
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