MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falkland Islands: Weekly Penguin News Update

Headlines: Student woos potential new boss; Union condemns C&W move; Government meets with C&W; New deal for Desire; Mt Maria back on line.

Student woos potential new bossBUDDING sailor Bethan Halliday was lucky enough to spend her school work experience period at sea with the Royal Navy. She is pictured right in HMS Clyde'swell equipped sickbay practising cannulation on a training arm under the watchful eye of Leading Medical Assistant Brown. Bethan, who has just left school and has ambitions to join the Royal Navy, made a good impression on the captain of HMS Clyde- turn to page 3 for the story. Union condemns C&W moveTHE General Employees Union (GEU) has condemned a decision by Cable and Wireless to relocate its Directory Enquiries service to St Helena. However the government says it is satisfied that just one redundancy has resulted from the shift. In a statement released by the organisation this week, the GEU stated: "The only reason that we can see for the move is corporate greed. We fail to see how the service can become better or more efficient; indeed we foresee a worsening of the service as local knowledge is lost." Cable and Wireless is a company with an exclusive contract with the Falkland Islands Government for telecoms within the Islands, who, the GEU said, in the past had pledged their commitment to the Islands. "At this moment in time we are not seeing this commitment to the Islands or its people, but only to increasing its profits. "Whilst we fully accept that any company has the right to make a profit, it should not be at the expense of the people or the economy in whose country they operate." The GEU also expressed concerns that if Cable and Wireless moved the Directory Enquiries service outside of the Falklands, there would be more job losses within the company further down the line with more functions being carried out outside of the Islands "where there is a source of cheap labour." The Union made an appeal to Cable and Wireless to reverse the decision: "We would urge both our government and the public to pressure Cable and Wireless to keep the Directory Enquiries function within the Falklands." Government meets with C&WOn Wednesday the government (FIG), represented by Chief Executive Tim Thorogood, Government Secretary Peter King and Councillor Mike Summers, met with Aaron Richardson, Chief Executive of Cable and Wireless South Atlantic Ltd. The meeting was requested by FIG to gauge the possible effect of the proposed move on employment. According to a press statement released by FIG the following day, Cable and Wireless advised that for the four people affected, three potential alternative roles had already been identified within the company, and the fourth would be made redundant in accordance with both Falklands and UK redundancy law. "Cable and Wireless further advised that following this re-organisation the employment headcount at Cable and Wireless remains one more than the base set in November 2006 after the Cable and Wireless South Atlantic reorganisation at that time. "Assurances were given that the level of Directory Enquiries service would not be affected." According to FIG, assurance was given by Cable and Wireless that there were no plans for further redundancies, and that in particular there were no plans for dispensing with the watchkeeping service. "Technical remoting of core alarm services is being studied during off-peak hours, but it is not envisioned that this will result in a headcount reduction in the watchkeeping department." A Cable and Wireless users group including members of the public and business community is to be convened next month to provide a greater exchange of information and views between the company and its customers; members of the public will be asked shortly to advise interest in participation in this forum. Cable and Wireless and FIG will also be meeting separately to review the company's operating revenues and costs as allowed for under the Telecommunications License, and considering any Cable and Wireless requests for tariff review, according to the government statement. The Chamber of Commerce welcomed the formation of the users group which was a Chamber initiative proposed at one of its regular meetings with government. New deal for DesireOIL exploration company Desire Petroleum plc has officially signed a farm-out agreement with Arcadia Petroleum Ltd. The move followed approval by the Falkland Islands Government which had been awaited since February. Under the deal, Arcadia will drill and test the Ann prospect, paying 85 per cent of the costs to earn a 35 per cent interest in a sub-area of Tranche C, the exploration company said. The government has also granted Desire and Arcadia new acreage adjacent to Desire's existing acreage in Tranche I in the North Falklands Basin. Chairman of Desire, Stephen Phipps commented: "The majority of the prospects in the Desire inventory are still held 100% by Desire and with the funds currently available and at current rig rates we are able to drill two of these for our own account. "With our new partner on board we are now in a far stronger position to pursue actively all available rig opportunities for drilling our prospects." Director of Mineral Resources, Phyl Rendell, welcomed the agreement. She commented: "It's another step forward in a very long process; we've got to congratulate Desire on finding a new partner to work with to get a bit closer to drilling wells." Mt Maria back on lineBFBS has announced that its engineering team has managed to restore service to viewers served by the Mount Maria transmitter. BFBS Station Manager Stuart Holmes said the repair had been complex and had been hindered by bad weather conditions on site. "We are happy that the repairs have been successful - there is, however, a huge amount of snow and ice on the antennas, which will reduce the output slightly until the conditions on the mountain allow it to melt." He added: "I would like to especially thank British International Helicopters, whose flexibility and assistance enabled us to carry out these repairs at a time when there is no vehicular access to the site. "Once again, we apologise for the disruption this failure has caused and thank all our viewers for their patience."