Cable & Wireless – taking care of its family

25 September 2004

One Technology Square, the Cable and Wireless $15m state –of- the- art building provided refuge for a number of Cable and Wireless employees and their families during the onslaught of Hurricane Ivan.

To date, it is still home to the company’s crisis management team, and number of employees who lost their homes and currently have no where to live. But providing shelter is one of the ways Cable and Wireless has been helping their staff.
“Despite their circumstances many of our employees have been at work 12 plus hours a day 7 days a week and they are the real reason that the people of the Cayman Islands have been getting communications services back so quickly. As one of the largest employers on the island it was inevitable that a lot of our employees would be affected by Hurricane Ivan and therefore we had a plan in place to provide the needed support for our employees” said David Bodden, Vice President for Human Resources.

Cable & Wireless got to work straight away to assist staff. Firstly staff along with their families who wished to leave the island were evacuated.
For staff who stayed the priority was to assess the damage to their homes and where possible to make them watertight and clean so that they could live in them.

Mr. Bodden and other members of the HR staff arranged for a team of people to travel across the island visiting homes to make assessments, small repairs and fix tarpaulins over roofs. Following behind were an army of cleaners to mop up the mess. “ We had to first ensure that our employees were taken care of so that they could come out to work to ensure that the island’s telecommunications services are up and running at full capacity.”

As one of the first cargo planes to land in Grand Cayman after the Hurricane, Cable & Wireless brought in food, water and other supplies for staff including generators. The Stores department looked like a mini Supermarket as staff picked up their bags and filled them from the boxes to take home to their families.

So far more than 20 cargo planes have landed in Cayman bringing $350K worth of supplies from Florida and $150K worth from Panama including clothing. The company has also shipped 33 tons of cargo to Grand Cayman, including one thousand bottles of water a day for its employees.

In an effort to protect its employees health, a mini medical department has been set up at One Technology Square to give Tetanus shots and administer first aid to staff as needed.
Some families whose homes are not inhabitable are still living in One Technology Square, which means quite a few children of school age are on the compound. On hand to assist is Ann Pease; wife of Bob Pease VP for Procurement Northern Area. A former teacher, Ann recently worked as a volunteer teacher at the Prison in Northwood. “I am thoroughly enjoying teaching the children, I have a mixed age group from five up to ten and they are all eager to learn,” she said.
Throughout One Technology Square all you can hear is praise for the company. “I can’t believe how well we have been treated by Cable & Wireless,” said Darnol Kelly, Cable & Wireless residential dispatcher. “They have done everything within their power to make sure we have the necessities, plus a few luxuries as well”.
Mr. Bodden reiterated that Cable & Wireless will continue to support staff through these difficult times and supplies will continue to be shipped in as long as our employees need them..

About Cable & Wireless

Cable & Wireless is one of the world's leading international communications companies. It provides voice, data and IP (Internet Protocol) services to business and residential customers, as well as services to other telecoms carriers, mobile operators and providers of content, applications and internet services.

Cable & Wireless' principal operations are in the United Kingdom, continental Europe, Asia, the Caribbean, Panama and the Middle East.

For more information about Cable & Wireless, go to www.cw.com.

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For media inquiries please contact Pat Bynoe-Clarke at 345-916-8522 or pat.bynoe-clarke@cw.com.