fp Turks and Caicos

Digicel is showing solidarity with civil servants, announcing a 10 percent reduction in rates to for the public employees facing 10-percent pay cuts next month.

The announcement was made by Digicel TCI Chief Executive Office E. Jay Saunders. Although Digicel already has several “very aggressive” plans in place specifically geared toward civil servants, this additional cut is meant to be symbolic to civil servants “to let them know we feel their pain,” Saunders said.

The governor announced last week that all civil servants would be facing a pay cut of 10 percent starting in their April pay cheques because of government debt and lagging revenue.

In January Digicel began offering special packages to civil servants starting with plans as low as $12 a month, going up to $150 per month. Civil servants on the plans can call each other for free.

In addition, they offer varying amounts of additional free calls to the U.S., U.K. and Canada as well as other Digicel customers and other island carriers. And all calls to other Digicel customers are free on nights and weekends.

“The plans are designed to allow civil servants to be communicative and stay connected,” Sanders explained. Since the launch two months ago, the company says they already have more than 100 civil servants enrolled in the program, but this leaves a lot of room for the other approximately 2,400 who are still interested to jump on board.

Saunders explained last year the government put out a request for tender for all government contracted telephones, but retracted the bid request when through its cost cutting measures decided to offer telephone allowances for civil servants. After that measure was announced late in 2009, Digicel came up with their special offerings for civil service employees.

He says although civil servants’ telephone allowances are not expected to be cut, the company still wanted to show its solidarity with the employees.