Bermuda Industrial Union president Derrick Burgess hinted yesterday that strike action could be on the agenda after being driven to fury over the latest stance by CableVision over a fired worker.

The company said yesterday that the teenage technician had been let go within his three-month probation in accordance with the Bermuda Industrial Union agreement.

CableVision said it could sack the worker at will and the union had no right to interfere.

But Mr. Burgess said sacked workers had a right to contest their dismissal and that CableVision general manager Jeremy Elmas was ignorant of the agreement.

Mr. Burgess said CableVision would be discussed at a meeting of the union's general council on February 2. Asked if strike action would be on the agenda he said: “The BIU has done what we feel is necessary to get this issue sorted out and that has not happened.

“The membership of our council are quite annoyed at this moment and I don't know what course they are going to take. It is not a very good time for us.”

Mr. Elmas said the worker had been fired in the best interest of the customers because he was not doing his job properly.

He said the company had a backlog of complaints and many customers were angry at poor quality work.

The company has hired a quality assurance supervisor and a customer solutions manager to keep up standards, said Mr. Elmas.

Mr. Burgess said the pair never dealt with the fired worker, instead a foreign worker had been brought in to run training but there were no text books, no course structure and the trainer often ducked out of running sessions.

Mr. Burgess said trainees were training each other at the company and the fired worker did not have a chance.

He said: “If he made a mistake the proper thing to do would be to take him back and there and show him the mistake so he would know not to do it again.”

Government Director of Labour and Industrial Relations Larry Burgess is looking at the case.

He said: “We are actively trying to get both parties together and to effect a resolution.”

CableVision said they were offering on-the-job training as well as training via the National Cable Television Institute (NCTI) which Mr. Elmas said was the largest independent provider of broadband communications training in the world.

But he added: “While the NCTI courses have been offered to all employees we are disappointed that since the beginning of last year, only one of our technicians has chosen to complete a course module.

“As a result we will soon be implementing a more comprehensive, mandatory training programme based on the individual skill levels of each technician.”

Mr. Burgess disputed that the company had the customers at heart because he said they were refusing to sanction Saturday working while Sunday working was only given to guest workers.

He said: “Are they concerned about getting rid of the backlog when they refuse Bermudians work?”