BWIA to send home 140 By PRIOR BEHARRY BWIA West Indies Airways announced yesterday that it will terminate 181 positions within the airline in Trinidad and Tobago and abroad. The move will affect about 140 employees who will be laid off in an attempt to keep costs down as a result of the turbulence in the airline industry following the September 11 terrorist attack in the US. The intended layoffs were announced at Sunjet House, Edward Street, Port of Spain yesterday by Frank Sampson, vice-president, Employee Services. Sampson said among those to be laid off are pilots, management staff (executive, middle and supervisory), general administrative staff and maintenance workers. Flight attendants will not be affected, he said. According to Sampson, management staff will be reduced by 11 per cent while other job categories will be cut by six per cent. He said these layoffs will contract BWIA's permanent workforce by 7.4 per cent. Sampson said these latest changes follow a post-September 11 review of BWIA. He said the positions to be terminated are those considered redundant. "We have now determined in which positions and in what numbers we have a surplus to the organisational requirement," he explained. Sampson said discussions have been held with trade unions which represent BWIA employees. The unions were notified yesterday about the redundancies within the classifications contained in the collective agreements. Sampson said a voluntary separation of employment package will be offered to persons in positions considered redundant. He said deadline for this package will be next Friday following which an assessment will be made on which VSEP applications will be accepted. However, officials of the Aviation Communication and Allied Workers Union (ACAWU) maintained yesterday that BWIA should not lay off any employee. Labour relations officer, Christopher Abraham said a reduction in staff at BWIA will severely affect production and quality of service. Any reduction in the ramp attendant or the customer service departments, he said, will affect the airline. In the union's opinion these departments are already understaffed. Sampson maintains that BWIA's passenger flow will not be affected by the restructuring. He said the reservation staff will be preserved in the interest of passenger flow. Of the 181 positions to be terminated, 31 will affect employees who work outside Trinidad and Tobago. Sampson said discussions will be held with the unions representing these employees before any decision is made. As at January 2002, BWIA had 2,513 employees. Its fleet includes two L-1011-500 Tristars, three McDonnell-Douglas MD-83s, three de Havilland Dash Q300 and six Boeing 737-800. The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site: Roj (Roger James) *************************************************** ICQ Pager: mailto:15836110@pager.icq.com escape email mailto:ejames@escape.ca yahoo email: mailto:triniroj@yahoo.com Trinbago site: http://www.tntisland.com CBSC Group on Yahoo: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/caribsocabrass CBSC Website http://www.tntisland.com/caribbeansocabrassconnection/ ******************************************************* Steel Expressions Orch http://www.escape.ca/~ejames/se/ email #1: mailto:steelexpressions@yahoo.com email #2: mailto:steelexpressions@home.com ******************************************************* The Trinbago Site of the Week: (Flowerline) http://www.flowerlinetnt.com (Flowerline Florist) courtesy of Roj Trinbago Website & TnT Web Directory Roj's Trinbago Website: http://www.tntisland.com TnT Web Directory: http://195.224.187.36/ *********************************************************