27 Jun 2008

Solomons opposition questions strike

6:33 pm on 27 June 2008

The Solomons Islands opposition leader says recent industrial action against Telekom by its workers may have been a covert attempt to lower the value of shares in the company.

Manasseh Sogavare's comments follow the return to work of striking Telekom employees yesterday after an eight day strike.

The workers had been demanding the removal of Telekom's CEO, Martyn Robinson.

Mr Sogavare believes that Mr Robinson should be temporarily removed and an inquiry into the whole affair set up.

He says the strike may have been linked to the impending entry into the Solomons market by telecommunications provider Digicell, who are planning to buy into Cable & Wireless' minority share of Telekom.

"Maybe throw some allegations to the GM is just issues brought up to cover certain things. I wouild think also that some of the employees are also involved in some serious collusion with some people to benefit in something that is coming up. For example you could purposely und ervalue the share of Telekom in order to facilitate facilitate a buy-in by Digicell."