Dear Editor,
That announcement from GTT about a pay cut leaves a bad taste in the mouth and all over. The best that can be said about it, is that it comes over as rather coldblooded and heartless with a business as usual mentality, in an environment that is anything but usual. This is adding acid to the wounds of those who are struggling to keep their heads above water. It is too early, too untimely, too out of touch and in the most jarring fashion.
As much as many would like to stay away from work and be paid for doing so, what has been prompted by circumstances is not voluntary but mandatory, as in wisely implemented by management to protect the health of workers and minimize exposure to those who have to remain on the job. Stay home, stay clear, stay safe should be the watchwords and guiding principles. If this pay cut was happening several months into a crisis that is still developing, then there would be some understanding, for this is not the way that businesses could continue to stay in business. But for forced pay cuts to be put on the table this early I think is applying a painful financial squeeze when it is not necessary.
Due to the nature of the technologies around, most of what GTT offers in its menu of telecommunications services has not slowed to a halt. I would think that most, if not all, of the normal range of services continue unaffected. This includes landlines using the old technologies; international calling facilities continue uninterrupted; Blaze linking people by phone and internet remain untouched; and mobile connectivity still enjoys its normal traffic. I just received my monthly charges for all of those, as I would think most users.
So, what is the problem here that calls for a pay cut? What has changed so drastically and quickly that this heavy-handed step had to be contemplated and then delivered? Whatever the answer, what makes this pay cut disturbing and unacceptable to me is not only its timing and its certain effects on those most unable to absorb it. I must question the necessity for it, when GTT’s revenue streams and bottom line businesses remain largely untouched. Come to think of it, since people are locked in and in greater numbers, there is only the television and the phone to connect to the outside world. The former is visual and renders the viewer passive; the latter helps individuals to remain connected and somewhat active. As a news report from New York noted, the old-fashioned phone call is making a strong comeback, since so many are, in effect, marooned. Thus, the telephone becomes the lifeline to one’s network of friends and family, who are also in enforced solitary. People want to be comforted by the voice of loved ones. Depending on how accessed and used, this is good for business.
It is against these contexts that GTT saw it timely and proper to add what could only be termed as insult to injury. As is known, there is no safety net of unemployment insurance in Guyana at this stage, hence workers have little on which to fall back during hard times, unlike people close to me overseas, who do have such facilities now enhanced by a stimulus relief package (the CARES Act). This is a hard time, and threatens to be the hardest of all, should worst case scenarios transform into reality. As if to disparage the unwisdom of that pay cut decision, the government came out to announce that public servants’ compensation would stay the way it is for the rest of the year. This is a good step that has to become, and quickly, the standard for larger and well-established businesses. I would recommend such consideration for the near-term at least.
As a start, I would define that as the next three months, should workers be compelled to remain off premises. High performing blue chips have little excuse not to follow suit, if only to assure workers that their wellbeing is high on the agenda; their corporate profits point in the ability to deliver such magnanimity. This would include taking care of the money side while the lockdown is on. I urge GTT to reconsider.
Yours faithfully,
GHK Lall
