Telecommunications giant LIME (formerly Cable and Wireless) is downplaying reports that the company is about to lay off some of its employees.
LIME General Manager Jeffery Baptiste confirmed however that “a few” workers were being laid off.
He indicated that that was in keeping with organizational changes that most businesses go through as part of a process of fine tuning their operations.
Baptiste said LIME was undertaking a reorganization exercise in alignment with the environment that the company operates in.
According to the general manager, less than ten workers will be affected.
He said LIME was examining “roles we feel may not be relevant in terms of our plans”.
Unconfirmed reports had suggested that as many as 18 LIME employees were being axed.
Baptiste says that’s not the case.
It is sad the LIME has to downsize their business for better operation purposes. It is also sad the the under-paid and the poor who feel it the most. It is sad that businesses thrive then fall..At the end all that is the business world. BUT we dominicans need to get out of that slavery mentality or low-mindedness where we think we always have to work and depend on government and people for job/income. Why don’t we create our own?? Always complaining how DA doe have job and government not doing this or that. BE INNOVATIVE! STOP MAKING YOURSELF WORK FOR MONEY AND MAKE YOUR MONEY WORK FOR YOU! Dominicans so talented yet so lazy and dependent. We might be surprised that the little things we take for granted are the things that can help us…IF YOU HAVE A PIECE OF LAND, CULTIVATE IT! IF YOU HAVE A TALENT FOR CRAFT, MAKE SOMETHING! DO SOMETHING MAN AND STOP BEING SOLEY DEPENDENT! STOP MAKING OUR YOUNG GENERATION GROW UP WITH THE MENTALITY THAT WE ALWAYS HAVE TO DEPEND ON PEOPLE TO EARN A LIVING! Just be ambitious people…and use ya’ll God-given talents to aid..
While i am aware of what is happening at LIME, are we also taking note that Digicel is also offering separation packages to it’s employees in Jamaica, Barbadoes and across the region which ofcourse could include Dominca.
The Government always mentioned the next level the fact is they did not state if that level was Backward. Loubour Got it well get it
Yessa. Pm do something plz. I myself just lost my job working at Kfc possie. Now Aerial Tram close. Lime laying off. What shall we do? When we have kids to feed, clothe, send to school. When we have bills to pay. When employers saying no we don’t have vacancies. Can anybody out there help?
I would like DNO to do a special report on all the businesses that have shut down or downsized between 2005 and now. This is my list I can remember off my head, but there should be much more:
1) Grand Bazaar – shut down
2) Royal Bazaar – shut down
3) Wayne Feed Center – shut down
4) KFC Portsmouth – Shut down
5) Rituals – Shut Down
6) Liat Roseau Office – Shut Down
7) Rain Forest Areal Tram – Shut Down
9) Lime – Down-sizing and cutting back
10) Digicel – Down-sizing and cutting back
Everybody else feel free to add more to the list…
ORANGE Dominica ltd (sold)
Marpin 2k4 (downsizing)
Dominica Brewery & Beverages – Sold twice the Company continues to Struggle
11) Dominica – Sold (To Chinese)
Haydens
Lime may have changed its name from Cable & Wireless but the business model and philosophy remain. This is not the first time Cables/Lime is doing this and it will definitely not be the last. That’s business!
Cables/Lime is generally a good corporate citizen in terms of sponsorships and donations in support of social activities –culture, sports and the arts etc. In so doing, the impression is given that the company is a good corporate citizen and in fact it is. But one should not be fooled. Lime chooses to use its marketing, advertizing, promotion budget in that manner. It is not that Lime is so generous, when it sponsors events or donates to needy causes. This is all business. Nothing is free. When it comes to the bottom line, this company is actually very conservative and pays close attention to its profit margin. It will not dip into its reserves or seek to reduce its set profit margin to save a few jobs. Instead, it always focuses on its operating costs, which more often than not results in firings and lay offs. But- that’s business!
Cable & Wireless/Lime is an international tele-communications company. A very profitable one too! In fact, most major telecommunication companies are doing very well. There is money to be made in that business as more and more people and businesses become more and more reliant on telecommunication services and devices to be relevant in today’s fast pace, competitive business environment. Globally, telecommunication companies are reporting increased demand for their services. Cable and wireless/Lime is in the center of this era of prosperity. In that regard, one wishes that the company would turn to its social conscience and accept just a little less profit rather than laying-off workers considering the serious impact of this action on the lives of the employees and their families. After all, keeping these people employed will have a significantly less impact on the company’s bottom line compared with the impact of the lay off. Then again – this is all business.
The thing is something is fundamentally wrong with core of the Dominican economy. The constant lay off of workers by Lime, McKenzie’s paper factory, KFC, the Tram that store and this business is not just by accident. Something is rotten to the core. There is no business.
The multiplier effect has given way to the subtracting effect. Jobs are not being created, money is not in circulation for consumer spending, there is little disposable income and so business revenues and profits in the private sector are falling, banks are not lending even though our only development bank is reporting millions in profit, Chinese are employed, locals are unemployed but Chinese not spending money in the economy, locals are being laid off and have no money. The low spending triggers negative real economic growth as our economy is in a free fall- it is dying while Tony and Lennox are continually spinning and that is serious business.
Roseau Valley, shorten them posts please… geeez man
Noted. Agreed.
skerrit need to do soeting look at guadeloupe they allow people to come i and open buisnesses but with the rights that only their local ppl work in them but nooo not doinican alldem chinese bringin their ppl come on dominican stand up and fight for wat is ours
LIME is now sooooooooo INEFFICIENT it’s not funny. Somebody described LIME as “Living In Misery Everyday. You get people answering you from all over the globe when you call this miserable company and after they have increased your bill by having you hold on for 20 minutes to verify an account, the employee tells you “it’s a local number you need to go in and talk to someone in the office.” All funny charges appear on your bill and they give you no plausible explanation. LIME has been releasing some of their more experienced workers in an effort to maintain their huge profits..but all that will come to an end. All of the big wigs, their number will be called one day. To those who have been sent out, I pray that you will find employment elsewhere in short time.
There is one World! There is no 3rd, 2nd or 1st World. God made One World.
Stop calling our country “Third World.” Erase the mental slavery.
LORD HELP US IN DOMINICA
I do not understand this – LIME gave out a million dollars some years ago, just after major downsizing; just recently they spent so much money re-designing their store, and now more lay-offs. I guess all that is part of the ‘organisational changes’
inside sources told me they ever regret giving away that million dollars.
@DRlee Do you know whats the deffinition of a third world country? well pls do not include my island as a third world country do not bring my island down because Dominica is nowhere near close to be a third world country go do your research. ok? learn what a third world country is and then make your comments that goes to the rest of these ignorant generations today.
Go to the hospital and you will understand that Dominica is indeed a third world country.
@ Sal
I read in a Toronto Caribbean newspapers that a state of the art hospital will be built in DA by China. I hope so and soon enough. Wait for the state of the art hospital to be built and see if is a third world country. If in former years, under certain previous governments who expended the money which it squandered and lived lavish lifestyles with this money, DA would have had a better hospital.
This is food for thought and reflection. I have been considering, when Dominica became independent from Great Britain, did Great Britain not give that DA government money when it seceded? I am certain they did which was not a small amount. What happened to that money? Do some research and get back to us on this matter.
Dominica needs money but it is not a third world country. I dare anyone to state that it is.
yes it is a 3rd world country i believe u need to do your research. we are nowhere comparable to countries like the USA and European and other first world countries. Just because Dominica doesn’t seem as bad as countries such as Haiti and certain parts of India doesn’t mean its not a third world. also FYI the term first and third world are no longer used it is now developed and developing.
What about under developed lol
well america owes china 1.6 trillion dollars but china is second world right america is first world tell them to pay china. explain that to me.
@ 4EvaTrue
You are correct. May the U.N., E.U., WHO, Amnesty International and such organizations not classify Dominica as a third world country. If they do, I hope the government and other officials of all will set them straight. Dominica may need financial assistance but it is by no means a third world country.
Dominica and the other West Indian islands are not third world countries. The third world countries are in Africa, some parts of Asia; India and such countries where there is a high degree of population and people are poor and starving and living under unhealthy and squalor conditions. Not Dominica! If anyone informs me that Dominica is a third world country and is categorized as such, they will get it from me in no uncertain terms. I will also ask them what is their definition of a third world country.
while businesseds like the arial tram is closing and lime is firing, skerrit is giving 8 million to liat. so what allu talking about, who to blame. look all saints university ready to pack up. look KFC close in Portsmouth. Look rituals close in Roseau. who to blame? Huh
The government can’t be solely to blame for the failures of private companies.
SO WHAT ARE THEY DOING WITH MY TOPUP MONEY?
Why do we think that because the G8 countries might have some layoffs that we must match those even though our industry might differ by miles.
DA have enough resources that should lay-offs should NOT be a part of Dominican vocabulary. The reason why we about some serious issues in DA is because we vote for looks not ideas, we vote for young and with no vision; as a result we have no direction; we vote for SEWO and not for productive contributors;
Well it takes a little while to hit some of us who think it will NOT happen to me and it is coming like a storm.
When Skerro finish with DA we will be back to pre 1912 days….its coming folks, we going to pay BIG TIME!!
Wow. Dominica deteriorate so badly that people cannot blame Skerrit now for lay offs. Commonsense tells me that if the economy is doing well business expand, if the economy doing badly businesses close down.
So, when KFC, rituals and Lime lay off staff, so when the Govt put high taxes, and more bureaucracy to do business, people Skerrit to blame, he is the minister of finance, stop the politicking.
old cable and wireless was always a company who paid no attention to how they treated the public. now with better choices and more competitive pricing by rivals they are suffering the consequences of their lack of caring for their customers. layoffs are not revival!
u know wat we as dominicans need to o is strike every one whohas a cable/lime line a thier home cut it do not use cables/lime any more then they will see we are serious about takin bak wat is ours weneed to stand on our feet enough is enough when io heard about it i closed my iune with them i am ired o the bul goin on and theyjust takin advantage of thepoor man
@ lady
Competition is needed and they will soon clean up their act and treat staff and customers differently and with the respect they should be accorded. Competition will keep them on their toes, so-to-speak.
Well they have to pay for their new ‘showroom’
WELL DEGI WILL WELCOME THEM WITH OPEN ARMS
Linky, you’re a half idiot. Why does everything have to be political? Be a part of the solution not the problem.
Haitians working like donkey for free wi
I thought lime was for living everyday .. And they taking peoples living away from them !! Dominqic fini bat!!!
hopefully they can find something else to do. stay strong.
tough on these people
They cannot layoff the CEO or GM, somebody gets the short end and its always the underpaid employees.
That may not necessarily be true in this case. from what i hear it was some highly paid big shots this time. Things will turn around for their betterment because they are probably highly skilled.
So u want to make better on ur profits and u figure that cutting out some workers in de lowest pay bracket will help u see more money coming to ur company? Are they the ones cutting ur profits against Digicel? What about de failures of those in de higher pay bracket who have more responsibility to see de company make better profits?
When u expect local companies to keep our jobs they cutting us off
Anonymous I think you hit the nail on the head once people reach a certain pay bracket they do this. SHAME on LIME.
what d rear does that have to do with skerrit? skerrit that tell him lay off some workers?? does skerit own the company or have shares in them… typical dominicans. can never please black people not one bit
Lime is always hiring and always firing. Can these people be re-deployed within the company? Things are so rough now, people have committments and to just loose their jobs over-night its so painful. We cannot blame government these things happen in all companies but it is so difficult to get jobs in little Dominica, unlike the big countries. If Government could do it they would lay off alot of people too because the economy is very bad and Government is also going through its rough times in meeting the payment of salaries and services. It’s a global thing now. We just have to continue praying because we are a strong and prayerful people. God Bless us all!!
Don’t blame lime, blame the greedy share holders!
So then Jayson; who is LIME in this case? Certainly not the workers or customers.
so true
Some Dominicans need to stop sounding like “uneducated” fools. You all cannot blame Skerrit for EVERYTHING. Companies all over the globe are laying off people everyday. Lime is not a government owened company so there is nothing Skerrit can do about it. Stop showing so much ignorance on a daily basis man….
Thank you very much – Globally, businesses are downsizing. The worst is yet to come people.
Skerrit is not to blame for everything, but his policies are making things more difficult. In this difficult global economic climate how can a leader be giving foreigners work that locals can do? How can a leader be increasing the national debt on non essential projects (state house)? How can a leader of a poor third world country with no enemies be traveling around in three care motorcade and a dozen bodyguards?
These and more are the issues with Skerrit why his name comes up, we all watch the international news and we are aware that the world is in recession.
@ Rat
For your information, the Govt of D/ca owns 20% of Lime(d/ca) as such the govt. of Dominica can be considered part owner.
I don’t think they still retain equity interest
yes, i agree with you,Rat but on the other hand we are not seeing that Government has any initiatives to create opportunities where people could get employed, that’s the problem. They are visionless. I don’t see them performing for that hefty salary!
i will simply set a trap for u rat! You deserved to be caught, If u cannot ballmes the givernemnt, blame the workers for not developing the their skill or blame Lime
Rat, are you aware that Govt has 20% shares inthe companies and Lime has local shareholders. Govt does have a strong part to play. nevertheless we have not seen the worst and companies are downsizing and closing everywhere. USVI currently has 8% cut from all Govt employees. Imagine if they try half of that on us in DA. Lime does not handle redundancy strategically. They layoff based on who likes who but not based on the company’s vision or to get rid of those who are unproductive. Wish Govt had a plan to get rid of unproductive people in the service and statutory boards.
You mentioned Companies all over the globe is doing so the difference other GOVTS have safty network in place for those who get laid off they have what is call EMPLOYMENT INSURANCE to fall back no till they find other jobs what does your so call DLP Govt and Skerrit have in place and please dont tell me the Red Clinic which is not the samething, every time one works insurence is deducted on every paycheck so dont give your stupid uneducated remarks.
Dominica is not producing or shipping anything no jobs who else should the people hold resposible if not Skeritt then it would be you, well your hand outs is coming to and end ans soon you will be on the cutting block.
Spend tons of money on fancy store and laying off workers the same week….hmmm
nice observation. say no more.
I support you a 100 pcnt . Just like the manager a great talker and cannot even write a report.
Lime must stop trying to fool people. The workers have already gotten their walking papers. So Mr. Baptiste should be up front and speak the truth, it is more than ten. For the information of the readers the workers that were axed were are very young peple some of then have been with lime just over 7years now.
and some of them had high paying regional positions. So it’s not the ones with the minimal salary
less than 10 Mr. Baptiste? Ten is a big figure! This is not good news. Anyway, God is good. They will survive.
Red Clinic doesnt close
http://www.bnamericas.com/news/telecommunications/c-wc-reports-18-revenue-growth-for-fiscal-2012-with-strong-mobile-data-increases
“Caribbean revenue increased 37.8% in the year to US$1.17bn, with a gross profit margin of 24%. There is an issue with operating costs, and the company is planning to launch a cost-cutting program in the region this week, Rice said. “
Most likely Lime has made over 20 million compare that to Domlec which made 6 million yet no one is saying anything about Lime
Difference is LIME operates Regionally while DOMLEC operates locally
So making 20 million of of 20 countries is acceptable while making 6 million (in net profits) from 1 small country is not. seriously to make 6 million in net profits (after an accident that rendered a power station inoperable for months) from a population of 70,000 (less actually but let’s leave it for arguments sake)that’s not $10.00 profit per person nuh that’s almost $100.00 profit per person, “PROFIT” if DOMLEC had even an inkling of competition they would not be making so much money.
@Anonymous, thanks for sharing this article with us.
I view what C&WC and other companies are doing in terms of maximizing profits akin to wringing a wet cloth to get off every bit of water until the cloth tears.
Sigh… Things not getting better at all…. I know for a fact some might blame the government…. but its not the government, its a sigh that God is near… The Bible clearly states…. Perilous times shall come…. First it was KFC in Posie where 50 persons lose their job, then it was the aerial tram where 66 persons lose their job and now its Lime where a few persons will be sent home…. I’m a college graduate and i’m unemployed at home…. You won’t hear me blaming the government mainly because I read my Bible and I know that’s signs of the time… yeah!
so why even mention the government and clearly its not relevant here. you still mentioned it even doe you didnt blame them…..typical dominican. You are sick!
I feel sorry for you! alas! only 5 persons like ur foolish comment! Ur point was pointless wi.. alas go cry now!
rubish
so because signs of the time is near, just sitting down and going through those perilious times is the answer?
@De-Unexpected, good point but u seem to forget the over 50 truckers who are now jobless because they aint get a salary since february so technically i consider it loss of job because u cant work for no pay eh but talking about Lime, did u also hear that Digicel has been offering Severance packages to their staff across the region including Dominica? the economy is just so dam bad, im thinking of selling my car and start walking now, maybe i will be lose weight too because boy i got to get my body in order for what next is to come, that is Meseh, so by that time i will get use to fig and oil and casava bread
the main difference there is that Digicel is “OFFERING” but LIME is “laying off”. i work at Digicel and you have a choice to apply for the VSP or not. so stop misleading the people who is reading your crap.
Good one too!
I guess will help you get your fat butt.
espoire mal papaye.You religous freaks never fail to amaze & entertain.You cll ur self a college graduate? Are for real? a decade ago 76% of surveyed folks beleive in god.Today 2012 it is down to 46% and most of the doubters non-belivers are people under 30 are you over this #?
I guess U know the story of the women who went to the river to wash their vestments and got down to it.Then there was this other woman who watched the clothes and said god will help her?
Reader & Objective, why do you cry out, “Oh God!” when you normally bounce your big toe?
You might be part of the 46% too.
You sounding like a pastor from a local church.. But it’s true..
LIME and before cable and wireles always does that. when you reach a certain pay bracket, they lay you off and hire a set of new employees to reduce their wage bill. the did it a few yrs ago too
Most of the folks who were laid off are local (yes) but they held regional positions. They did not work for LIME Dominica but for LIME Caribbean. As such they did not report to Mr. Baptiste. So it’s not because they are based here that they are Dominican employees.
Some of them above aged 50 were also offered severance pay packages.
yep! they always do that…! is a business thing with them man.
so much money Lime making they sending home people
all of that is part of the next level. is skerrit they wanted …..they get him.
reallyy???? u sound like an ignorant A#*!!!
st…..p..d.
Only idiots like you would make such a comment! How does Skerrit fit into this equation? A private company laying off workers…please explain
Are you aware that this is not isolated to Dominica only?
I hope you are self employed ……….
@ KEVIN…SUCH AN IDIOT…SMH
if it was me i would put half of them out they will still turn around and tell u that dominica is doing fine ‘take what allu get laborrrrrrrrr.
st…p..d
so what labour have to do with LIME? they privately owned company who lay off people when they reach a certain salary. Blame everything on SKerrit.no sense
PREACH IT LINKY
PREACH IT