Call center, Clear Harbor, is promising that employees laid off in a redundancy excercise will eventually be rehired.
On Wednesday the company announced that 44 percent of its workforce will be sent home on September 21 as it reorganizes its Canefield operations.
Addressing the media on Wednesday, the company’s chief operating officer, Brian Lambert, said at the end of the reorganization excercise, Clear Harbor will be able to hire all the individuals who were made redundant.
“At the end of the reorganization Clear Harbour comes out as a far stronger player, we will have far more clients in the organization and if one of the clients happen to go down for whatever reason all of the other clients will be large enough to be able to absorb through transfers, that kind of loss,” he remarked.
He emphasized that the reorganization is not in any way reflective of adverse conditions or experience in Dominica but became necessary because of industry-wide trends.
He noted that Clear Harbor will continue to lease the four buildings from which they currently operate and will also continue to buy goods and services locally, in order to maintain strong business ties to Dominica.
Lambert pointed out that the reorganization exercise is necessary because the company is eliminating one of its large accounts to bring on several smaller ones over the next 6 months.
“In order for us to accomplish this it means we will be making 243 employees redundant effective September 21st of this year. At the same time we are adding two new accounts that will begin in about two weeks from now for the first one and the second account, who we are very excited about, is a large North American insurance company and they will begin training in this location early in October” he stated.
Clear Harbor has been operating in Dominica for the past seven years and has employed 554 individuals.
Brian wait a minute!! slow down,,, can u tell us how on earth u make workers redundant and then turn around and rehire them. ok am sorry. am the jackass here then. ok
yes you are. Do you know how many companies lay off and re-hire the workers back?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah! I will believe you when it happens.
This is just a spin to appease the political establishment and stay in good position with them. You had to say that because it was a directive from El Supremo…..or else! You guys were advised to hold off on the announcement until the PM was on island and he would prepare the nation but someone messed up and got scared after word went out of the pending lay-offs.
We hope you all get some more work soon and never have to lay off these poor people but life goes on. My advise to you is don’t ever believe that we are stupid. Yes, politically we may be very naive in that the DLP was able to bamboozle us for almost 15 years and some of us still LOVE OUR PM but we hate it when foreigners still believe we are fools. However, we appreciate the thought that “if” possible our loved ones will be rehired in the near future.
Just keep in mind that “Change Must Come” and it will be sooner rather than later.
Assertive, NOT Agressive!
@listening both grenada and dominica were affected get your facts right before you run your mouth
Say what all you want, curse me, call me all sorts of names, give me all thumbs down, I could care less, but I giving this government 2-3 more terms in office because I don’t wish to be fooled again into thinking that politicians who outside talking going to come in and do any better. The present government have made many mistakes but atleast they have the experience. Therefore a new party would simply come and have to make too many more mistakes before they can gain the experience to do better. In an island as difficult as Dominica to develop I believe a government needs alot of time to do work. Countries like the US and Uk have had their democracies for a very long time so hence the country is strong so they can afford to change government more often but we need time. The UWP is now rather a new party so there is no guarantee that they can just pick up the ball and run with it and who can’t see that must be living in dreamland, where that is. It has never happened in the past and certainly won’t happen now if you were to follow the history of Dominica you would notice under every government people cried out about poverty and so to migrated.
Talk now all you uwp puwieers…cannot understand why they blue vexxxx….
“It is clear that we need an economy capable of delivering and sustaining not just robust job growth but also an increased number of HIGHER PAYING JOBS (emphasis added.
The state of play sets up a national leadership and management challenge, which your UWP government will tackle head on with its trademark passion for results.
The deeply flawed economic thinking of the past (13 years) has forced down the throats of unsuspecting citizens the notion that somehow it is possible for Dominica and Dominicans to shrink to greatness (and to become professional beggars. As such, all the economic policy prescriptions have fought against growth in the expansion of national and individual economic opportunity…..
There can be no doubt that in the absence of a decisive change of course away from the obsession with taxing meager salaries to cover up fiscal indiscipline and mismanagement, the Dominican economy will completely collapse (and collapsed it has) notwithstanding the exercise of IMF life support.
Let us be clear that no amount of vote-catching promises of millions of dollars on Government projects on the eve of election can effectively deal with economic problems borne out of reckless mismanagement by the (DFP/DLP) coalition government.
In order to redress the hemorrhage and trauma that the Dominican economy and the people have had to endure during the last (thirteen years, your United Workers Party (UWP) government will hit the ground running again with a muti-pronged approach including:
– developing a world class tourism;
– breathe new life into the financial services sector;
-making Dominica an attractive domicile (not just for low paying jobs at Call Centers) but for higher paying jibs in IT development and international marketing companies;and of course
– the construction of an international airport (page 6 of the 2005 UWP Manifesto.
What an opportunity Dominica has missed. But don’t worry. Fear No more. The UWP is ready to bring good governance back to Dominica. Be sure with the SAW in HAND and get out the red SHOE that has been squeezing us for over 13 years. CHANGE IS A MUST NOT AN OPTION THIS TIME AROUND.
Mr. Lambert, please move part of your operation to the GrandBay area as there is infastructure and a fortress of educated youngsters and young adults to tap into. They are from a very wide area spreading from TeteMorne to Belview, all the way to Delices/Laplaine. That would go very far to keep families together and not have to travel and rent residence elsewhere.
Thank you for reading sir.
Joe, You deep.
That’s the thinking of a good Pal Rep or a Gov’t that cares about not taking a certain constituency for granted as a guaranteed vote. Your words show you care about that part of Dominica. Keep pushing fot them, deep.
Why all the hating,dont you realise its only idiots supporting skerro and his caball,they do not kno a from a bulls legs.They are like students who can only answer right there questions and flunks all the interpretive ones as well =as analysing.
Lovely Dominica. Neither Reggie nor Ambrose know what is happening. One topic four different stories. What a Joke. The funny thing is we ain’t even hear the PM version yet. I am looking forward to it. Guess we might see another acting PM before the weekend. Time will tell
This is the next level. I think the labour party climbing up an escalator that’s going down faster than they moving up and trying to convince themselves that they have moved to the next level. Time will tell.
Ummmm… yeah well, rat go find your cheese somewhere else. If you cannot find cheese make cheese to sell to other people looking for their cheese.
thats just joke in nature island, prime minister come back with 300 jobs in his pocket, clear habour cutting 300 jobs.when will those politician stop fulling the poor people. ALAS
I would like to suggest the following where it concerns the labor law.
The labor law should be set up in such a way that all employees should submit a request for termination services through the labor dept where it goes through a board..in order words employers would need permission from the labor department committee to discuss the matter and give good cause for wanting to release an employee. Without permission from the labor department then the employer wont be able to fire an employee unless it’s on the spot for just cause, like theft etc.
Often ties too many of our youngsters are fired for no reason…you come to work one day and the employer tells you dont come back and gives no reason.
In addition there must be a written trial period that both parties must agree upon..without the written two month signed trial period the employee then becomes permanent..something similar to that of st. marten;s labor laws
CORRECTION
all employers should submit a request for termination of services NOT employees
In Canada, if employees have less than three months employment, they could be dismissed and are not entitled to be given a reason, unless the employees can prove otherwise on grounds of discrimination or other according to the Labour Law and Code. I do not even think they are entitled to severance pay if their employment is less than 3 months. It may be different with Dominica. The government may have an arrangement with this employer.
Generally non-management employees are under probation for three months. Their employment could be terminated during that time with previous notice. However, telemarketing enterprises operate differently.
Permanent employment at those places is too uncertain. This is also due to the nature of the business.
‘without’
This is why gov’t should lead the way in providing the right environment for job creation in Dominica. I don’t think the govt have a good longterm plan for development in this country. It seems to be based on what foreign countries can give. And I think everytime these countries get a call from Dominica, they cringe and hold their wallets tight!
Gov’t need to have professional scouts out there drumming up business for Dominica…. either securing markets for our products or trying to get businesses to set up on our shores. We need to set up our college kids to be entrepreneurs (esp in the IT field) instead of having them sit around with college degrees waiting on a job… they can create opportunities/jobs for themselves. THeir services can help others around the world. The recent announcement for the mobile app conference is a good initiative. We have to be innovators, not just end-users! We have brilliant people in Dominica. We know that because when they go abroad, they excel!
THey need to study places like Hong Kong, Taiwan, India, etc and see how they do it. Dominica cannot depend on tourism alone and so setting it up as an IT hub would be appropriate. Attract brains/inveestments to D/ca through heavy incentives, tax breaks, etc.
Once we get these businesses to setup here, everything else will flow… They hotels, airport, everything will improve because of the DEMAND for their use.
Government has ideas, but they are going about it in a wrong manner. They should not be in the marina, or hotel business – the private industry does it best. Let gov’t lead the way in setting the environment (infrastructure, tax incentives, etc) and helping businesses to generate wealth in this country.
We just cannot beg our way to prosperity…
They also should study the US and Canada and probably Europe. Is the owner of Clear Harbor and management not a U.S. citizen? If so, they know how it operates.
The PM should have consulted someone in Canada who is fully acquainted with the operations of those enerprises. This would be first hand information and a factual one.
If business is slow or they lose business, it is to be expected that staff will be laid off. These types of jobs are not stable or secure ones.
Those who seek employment for such a position only do so if they are unemployed and want some quick money including the students. They do not view it as a permanent position. The staff turnover at those places is many and frequent. Even supervisors/managers are laid off.
Well said. That is why the UWP intends to focus on the revival of our economy through the private sector, recognizing that it is the engine of growth which requires the understanding and active support of government as a facilitator for smooth running.
As the private sector propels our economy, the honest, corruption free UWP government will stick to its plan of introducing policies to improve our productive sector and international competitiveness as our ticket to the arena to global trade in goods and services.
The UWP strategy will embrace diversification in the context of a broad strategy to position our national repertoire in the realities of globalization and trade liberalization( not the constant blaming of globalization and global economic meltdown for our near death economy like the DLP repeatedly does).
Have no fear. UWP is here.
Be sure with the SAW
Change is a must not an option.
My dominican people i am commenting from florida. Lets face the facts. This company has hired its executives to run and make good business decisions to be successful. i know how it feels when employees get redundancy, it affects all involved. i also have to say sometimes we make comments on some matters and we have no clue how to run a successful business. In politics, there will always be those who oppose. Stop blaming our PM for thing he has no control over. To be honest, this PM has accomplished more in his time in office than Mr E.O. LEBLANC to EDISON JAMES combined. If England at the knew dominica had potential to benefit them they would have invested into it. If France knew the same they would have invested into it. Our country has been neglected by some of the most advanced country.(we all know who they are). I personally believe our PM is doing an outstanding job going out negotiating to make our people lives better. Be patient. My mother always use to say to us, never throw away what you currently have unless you have something better to replace it with. Some of you have heard it before. Just to jog your memories, look around. Did your children had public transportation to take them to school before our PM? World cricket test matches, how many matches took was plyed in dominica before our current PM? Is the Canefield cliff road better? Was there a fishery in Portsmouth? Is our City of Roseau entrance bridge better? Are the people of Pointe Michel feel safer with their new sea defense wall?. Is’nt Petro Carib a good help for petrol use on our island? i think its good for our country to have a state bilding. Do you?. What about our state college building? its good that our PM is focus on education the next generation, so they will have better ideas to move our country forward. 90% of our people now has access to fresh drinking water. we all know D/a is known as the nature island of the world, 365 river,and our people struggled to get fresh drinking water. This PM currently trying to accomplish what should have been done 30yrs ago. I am bipartisan. politic will always be politic. The relationships our PM has right now is a good thing. Give him a chance to continue what he has started.Be Grateful, Be thankful,
Why dont you come back home and face the sauce with us? Patriot – from a distance.
Cosie, you make me wonder whether the ‘paragraph’ has been invented yet. lol lol
@ Cosie: Ur not in the frying pan, ur not feeling our pain!… When u come to D/ca for a little visit, I’m sure ur walkin with all ur money u make in the U.S…….
Ur just running ur mouth with silly stuff! Our lives has NOT improved under skerrit, everything is much more expensive, while our pay stays the same! n what pay, little money we making, Here’s a suggestion: Plz move back to D/ca under Skerrit leadership!
We cannot eat concrete…
i concur
365 rivers? your math is obviously not good or you have been away from DA for so long that u have no idea what is reality. As an example the Layou river was once a powerful river, look at the state of it now. EG. Mahaut, Massacre, St Joe once had free flowing rivers look at them now. Please get your facts straight before commenting on things that you obviously have no idea about
A vote for UWP is one for a solid economic development programme beyond 300 low paying jobs but over 5000 permanent respectable jobs from all sectors including agriculture in the next 5 years.
Trust UWP, Vote UWP!
Fear no more!
Change is a must not an option.
These 5000 permanent respectable jobs in all sectors are coming from where in the next five years? The world economy is contracting not expanding. This call center lost a big client so the income is not there to continue to employ these workers. Unless you plan to attract an industry that can not find a place to legally do its business elsewhere, I fail to see why industry would find Dominica, as beautiful and natural as it is, attractive. It has unreliable transportation, no mechanized harbor, an antiquated customs system, slow and often unreliable telecom infrastructure, and an inefficient workforce. All of these things need to be addressed before an entrepreneur would make a major capital investment to establish a new business in Dominica.
We doh trust not one of all you is the same all trying something. all you not playing in our brains to vote uwp, no way and no how. The same people that vote all you last time will do so. Please do not count on labour votes for all you to win. we voting labour for another 10 years in your face like it or not. LABOUR POWER
“Lambert pointed out that the reorganization exercise is necessary because the company is eliminating one of its large accounts to bring on several smaller ones over the next 6 months.” Serious? Are we saying that the company “Eliminated” a large account before getting others to replace it? Or did the company lost the account?
Trust continues to be a major issue here. It is an issue on the part of government and now, Clear Harbor. Earlier this week, Austrie said that Skerrit was bringing back 300 jobs; two days later , we hearing that almost the same number are getting fired…Did Austrie know about this before talking none sense? Now to try and pacify the novices that will vote for them again, they here talking about getting back the lost jobs.
Please stop disrespecting Dominicans. We deserve better.
Coming at you straight…I am the GM for Clear Harbor Dominica. We announced that we were reorganizing earlier this year and stated that in order to ensure stability to our company we were going to diversify our customer base so that if one large customer left we would not impact jobs or our valued employees. As such our executives including Mr. Lambert have been out getting us new business and we have signed two that will be starting in the next 60 days. They are starting as pilots with roughly 30 people each. In order to grow them large enough to make up for the client we are losing we need to perform on those clients during the months of October through December and hopefully is we are successful we will grow them early next year. They are also talking to several other potential new clients and the way we handle this situation and the successful roll down of our client will show other clients in the industry that Dominica and its employees are where they want to be. Our plan is to be successful on our pilots and gain additional business from those two and continue to sell our services and our people’s valuable skills in the market place to get new business. Our people are our greatest asset and with them and their performance we will be a stronger company next year. As for Grenada, they have several smaller clients today (that is the model we want here) and they did have redundancies this week but were much smaller due to the fact that they have several clients right now and were able to absorb most of the impact by moving employees to those other clients. That is our goal in Dominica and we will achieve it. We are not leaving the Island. We have 3 buildings today and are almost finished with a fourth building here and we have plans to utilize all of our space by the middle of next year. To All of our employees impacted and not impacted: I have never been as proud as I have been the last few days to be part of this team and to work with all of you. You have all handled this situation with dignity and respect and I do know how difficult it has been. I appreciate each of you and your desire to help us to finish the last month with this client and continue the service that you have already provided. I am committed to each and every one of you and our team will do all we can to grow this business and bring you back to continue our success in the future. Thank you. Mare
Thanks for your response to this important matter. I also want to thank you for your ongoing efforts to bring much needed employment to Dominica. It is important however, to be transparent, especially when large numbers of people are negatively impacted.
The initial post to DNO did not indicate that a large company left. I was of the impression that your firm was eliminating the account. I consider that misleading, and given the statements made by the acting PM earlier this week, this felt like a collaborative effort on the part of your firm and government to misinform the public.
Again, I commend you for your efforts to bring much needed employment to Dominica. I am sure you will grow your business and help those that are negatively impacted to return to work as soon as possible.
Best Regards
am I a jackass or is it yu? thewn why make 243 workers redundant. oh sorry u are a slave to the fullest. Massa will suck your blood u slave
Mr. Brian Lambert…..In the Call Center business the calls are routed to where you have an available agents…Your both locations are Grenada and Dominica, so clients call are routed to both location base on where the agent is available.
So if a client pulls out it should affect the workforce of both location …..Therefore why is only the Dominican Clear Harbor workforce affected.
A word of advice….Their are capable Senior Telecom people who reads these New Releases.
Please come straight!!!!
In the call center business calls are routed to where you direct them, not always to the first available agent. Grenada is servicing multiple clients, some that Dominica is not. Also, customers have different issues and calls are directed to different queues based on need.
Your generalization is wrong, Senior Telecom person. Also, Grenada just opened up a third center an April. Hmmmm
Skerrit must have lobbied this guy to come forth and preach that crap lol. Mr Skerrit your time is near to pack up shop, oh yes, thanks be to GOD !
I dont know how you guys can inject politics in this. The company is making a business decision. The government has a duty to put as positive a spin on this as they can. They cannot be seem to be the prophets of doom and gloom.
In the end the company is going to do what is their best interest. Their first obligation is to their shareholders. These things happen all the time. In this case it is magnified because of the state of the Dominican economy with a high unemployment rate.
If these guys could have set up their business in the States and pay the same wages, they would not have set up shop in Dominica.
This has nothing to go with politics and everything to do with their bottom line.
Did you read about the 300 call center type jobs that government was getting? This was announced earlier this week. Do you think the government did not know about this lay off before talking about their 300 jobs?
Government has injected politics into this because it affects voters, but the problem is that the government is not forthcoming. The announcement by Austrie earlier this week should have given the general public the truth. Everything should not be “spinned”, especially when the spinners are incompetent at spinning. In this case, people are directly affected.
I am confused, Brian. If you intend to replace a large client with several smaller ones by October ,why would you want to pay redundancies and earned vacations to 243 employees as from 21st. September. Why didn’t you use all the redundancy money plus a decrease in salary and hold back as many as 150 to 200 employees. It is rumored that there are some trouble makers in the company, it is also rumored a particular Union’s name is being circulated amongst the workers. Dominicans are watching.
Because he is either saying what he was told to say or just trying to throw the employees a bone. If he could see better times in October, as you rightly said, they would not have laid off these employees that they have trained already. Besides the severance pay will likely be higher than the two months they would have to wait to be rehired. In other words, he is trying to be nice, but you and I know what he is saying is a load of BS.
In the best interest of the workers, their families and the struggling Dominican economy, this is good news.
However, management of Clear Harbor appears to be playing some games with the livelihood of the poor workers. The initial announcement of Clear Harbor appears to have coincided with the announcement of Reggie that the PM was investor hunting for another job creating Call Center in Dominica.
It is strange that just yesterday Clear Harbor announced a decision to make 243 workers redundant, paying all earned vacation and even paying those workers who are not eligible for redundancy payment. All along Clear Harbor was aware that it may soon be closing a deal with two new clients. Why not await the outcome of the deal before making such a drastic move.
At this juncture, whether or not the workers are rehired, the action of management of Clear Harbor has fundamentally unsettled the psyche of the workers and caused then tremendous unnecessary emotional stress for which the workers may well deserve some additional compensation. This is tantamount to emotional, mental and unnecessary psychological stress as these people must be extremely worried about their job security and the fragile nature of their employment tenure. This is no way to treat workers. If there was not a reason for the staff to be fully unionized, this rather irrational decision in the course of two days ought to be serious cause for concern moving ahead.
WAWU or PSU should intensify efforts to organize the workers and represent their employment interest. This situation cannot be left to the DLP government and management of Clear Harbor, who is well aware of the desperate state of our government at this juncture. Government is not well positioned and sufficiently independent to take any major decision in the best interest of the workers. Clear Harbor management smells blood and like an instinctive business shark, the Company is closing in on its prey. All this maneuvering is about the bottom line and what is in the best interest of Clear harbor.
It is time to start rebuilding our economic future in Agriculture, Construction, Manufacturing, High-tech industries requiring highly skilled and a well trained labour force. Whereas the employment of 300+ Dominicans at a Call center is wonderful, this cannot be seen as our hope for economic prosperity. It is not a career for a young person. It is only a stepping ground in developing skills, good work ethics for better things in the future.
This is a matter that we must continue to monitor
Respectfully
Roseau Valley
WAWU or PSU were brought into the picture, Clear Harbor would simply close down in DA as they did in St Kitts a few years ago and move to another location either another island or South America
Roseau Valley, most times you make a lot of sense. This time you are way out to lunch. Don’t make this more complicated than it is.
The way I see it is, they must have lost a major client or two and they do not need that many people for the amount of business that they currently have.
Business must have the flexibility to reduce staff when the volume of work warrants it. If the government of Dominica makes it too onerous to match the staffing level to the amount of business that the company has, they will simply relocate theor business to a more business-friendly country.
This is not something anyone looks forward to, especially in a place like Dominica. But these are normal occurrences that businesses have to deal with from time to time.
that would be nice… but what i would like to know is …why did the client pull out… is this going to happen again in the future… rememer you all are messing with ppls lives… ppl got loans to pay and school books to buy and children to feed…
the client moved to honduras where it is cheaper and the workers work better, they do not abuse the social security system , sick leave nor try to fool the system, they come to work when rain is falling, just use an umbrella, they are always on time, so they dont loose calls etc, etc, etc, u see we do not understand the international system of paid labour, 8 hours for 8 hours…fair exchange, we say, they want to pay us in ec and is us they accoustomed to pay…well dollar for dollar, govt gives 5.00 ec they give 10 or more, we all know how we want even a minute extra overtime but we spend 1 hour in the bathroom to pee.
i could shake your big toe my girl
Well said my friend!! well said
Their intention may be noble, but dont hold your breath waiting to be hired. I am sure some minister must have called up the management of the company, asking them to reassure the employees or placate the opposition.
In the end, these guys will do what is best for their business. If it means hiring the staff when business picks up, then so be it. Unless the conditions change or they feel they cannot squeeze more productivity from the existing staff, they will not hire anyone. That is how successful businesses operate.
well said jimmi hendrix, productivity…we all know how productive we are…..
and to add to wat u said jimi hendrix dont forget these ppl were made redundant so this mean they were given some time from work and if rehired its a possibility their salaries maybe affected in a negative way,because its all about business.
All the wolves in sheep clothing who were attempting to show empathy, while at the same time bashing the PM in order to score cheap political points, we saw yet another proof of your hypocrisy. We are happy that these people will be re-employed. To the employees of CH, be strong, better days are ahead. Please do not allow the hate mongers to use your plight for their selfish political motive. They do not have your interest at heart. One Love!
u too fool fool all the workers in America were told the same thing. they are still unemployed after many years
and you believe that story? Neither regie nor ambrose knew what skerritt was up to. Skerritt knew that clear harbour was going to send the people home. Furthermore, what this coo of CH is saying now makes no sense, given the reason he gave for the reorganising CH.
Lets hear what those Haters and Negative commemtators have to spew now.
my people you all are too easily fooled the man was told to say that ehbe allu sot wii
Aa
Allu come and say allu thing yesterday and had people head hurting, now is another story. The proof is in the pudding and the oven is very very hot. I know Skerro going to use this and work his psycology but I not falling for it, pas mwe. I would be happy if they are all re-hired but I bet it’s gonna be at a lower rate and allu who allu wanted to let go in the first place, allu will never call them back.
not skerrit alone that have the country so nuh…its also ignorant people like u.
Do you even know the meaning of the word ignorant
all of allu tlking like all you working, clear harbor workers not even complaining a fus allu stupid, reading these comments upsets me, everything is a politics, skerrit doh have nothing to do with that. instead you all embrace the fact that people will get hired when things on a roll all blasting government like is their fault, its really hard to please dominicans..shaitt awa i