Digicel, the Caribbean-based telco founded by Denis O’Brien in Jamaica, is planning to make a number of staff redundant as part of an efficiency drive to remain “relevant and competitive” in its markets.
In a statement the company said its decentralisation plan would impact some roles at group level, albeit in a number of markets (Cayman, El Salvador, Haiti, Jamaica, St Lucia, Trinidad and the US), and that it had started a consultation period with staff.
Digicel employs 980 staff and a spokeswoman for the company said 1.5 per cent of roles would be impacted. This would indicate 14 or 15 redundancies.
The consultation process varies from market to market but can be up to 45 days, she said.
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In its statement Digicel said it “continuously looks for ways to be more efficient to allow us to provide even better service to our customers”.
“The pace of change in our hyperconnected world is furious, and the onus is on us to evolve in real time to ensure we remain relevant and competitive. Central to that is ensuring we have the right talent in the right places across and through our organisation.”
Digicel said it had spent the “last number of months carefully reviewing our organisation to structure and redesign our business to be fit for growth”.
“As always we are committed to assisting our people through this period and to ensuring they are treated with the utmost dignity and respect through the process. Likewise we will of course honour our commitments to them in line with local labour laws and practices.”
Mr O’Brien founded Digicel in 2001, later establishing the business across 32 markets in the Caribbean, Central America and the Pacific islands. He lost control of the group last year after a group of bondholders took 90 per cent of the highly-leveraged business in a $1.7 billion (€1.65 billion) debt-for-equity swap. The Irish businessman retains a 10 per cent shareholding in the telco.
