Otsea

RESOLUTIONS TAKEN AT SEMINAR ON PRIVATISATION HELD ON
1 0 & 1 1 SEPTEMBER 1996 .

Preamble

Privatisation is fashionable.

This does not mean that it is inevitable.

Every case for privatisation should be examined in depth with reference to the following parameters:

(a)Is it in the public interests?

(b)Will prices come down?

@Will jobs be protected?

(d)Will social costs be affordable?

(e)Will not the state be impoverished?

(f)Will it Guarantee sustainable development?

(e)Will it improve national competitiveness?

Only when these Questions are answered positively should privatisation be pursued.

In principle OTSEA is against privatisation in general, whether wholly or partially, and in particular that of the Mauritius Telecom for the following reasons:-

(a)the Company is already an efficient,profitable and modern one which has already set the necessary Telecom infrastruture to enable the country to become an information based society.

(b)privatisation normally brings in its wake various ills such as unemployment, concentration of wealth with its various concomitant problems.

However,in the eventuality of the privatisation of any Company/Institution/Enterprise/Organisation belonging to the state the Government should RESPECT the International Labour Organisation convention which stipulates that privatisation should be done within the context of internationally accepted standards and rights in relation to worker's conventions(collective bargaining,termination of employment and social security).

The following resolutions have been taken by those present at the seminar:

In the eventuality of the privatisation of the Company either by public floating or by private sale we make a firm request to Management

(a)To bargain collectively with the Unions of the Mauritius Telecom and not to do so with individual employees and to continue to give due recognition to all Unions of the Company and these should be included in the Company's prospectus.

(b)To maintain the prevailing conditions of service and procedural agreements and the pension scheme in toto and to include this clause very clealy in the Company's prospectus.

(c)To give a firm commitment to job security through job retraining and redeployment and a commitment not to implement compulsory redundancies.

(d)To redeploy employees in case of shop closure and to maximise direct labour and minimise contracting out.

(e)To speedup training at all levels in all fields of concern to improve already acquired skills/to allow employees to acquire new skills to enable them to be easily redeployed and as a prerequiste to such activities to implement the following as from now

To strenghten the training school and to employ full time lecturers in all fields concerned to make MT the centre of excellence for telecommunications and information Technology training in the Africa/lndian Ocean region.
To set up night schools at various main centres of the Company.
To set up self -learning units at the various centres with employees having the right to use the facilities for at least one hour per week during working time as well as during free time.
To give day release for those attending courses .
To put special emphasis on IT training for all grades .
To give loans to employees at 4 % rate of interest refundable within five years in equal monthly instalments to enable them to buy Mutimedia computers together with the modems to encourage them to become computer litterate for their own benefit and that of the Company in terms of more skilled labour.
To give the necessary facilities to 0TSEA to have lntemet pages free of charge on server of the Company. To give 100 mins per month of free intemet calls to each employee of the Company with free of charge access both for E-mail and lntemet.
To set up documentation centres at the main Mauritius Telecom centres.

(f)To allow the employees to become shareholders of the Company either individually or through an investment fund/trust.

(g)To grant a certain number of shares to each and every employee free and to give them the possibility of buying a certain number of shares at preferential rates over a certain number of years.

(h)To have representatives of the workers on the board of directors and this has to be stated clearly in the Companies prospectus.

We urge the Government to keep a majority of shares or to have golden shares in the Company to be in a position to have a direct influence on the Management of the Company whenever the Government thinks that public interests are in jeopardy.

We also urge the Government to review the existing Telecommunications act

To make it more in tune with the new Telecom realities .
To define the roles and responsibilities of each player clearly specially that of the Mauritius Telecom We also urge the Government to review the roles of the Telecommunication Authority (the Regulator)and those of the Telecommunications Advisory Council as they are not clear.

We are also asking the Government that all Telecommunication operators be regulated by the same yardsticks as regards provision of Universal service,interconnection fees,moratory period for the use of any particular Technology,entrance into new businesses such as cable TV,radio broadcasting and any other business related to Telecommunications using the already existing network and /or future networks belonging to Mauritius Telecom.In other words we are simply asking for the setting of a level playing field for all players bearing always in mind the higher interests of the country .

A copy of the resolution has been sent to all Parliamentarians ,the Chairman of the Company and the Chief Executive of the Company.

Homepage