Last October the States unanimously backed the Grouville Deputy’s proposition for a review of the decision by Jersey Telecom to withdraw its reduced tariff for senior citizens.
The company withdrew that proposal anyway, but after a review prompted by Deputy Labey’s proposition, the Economic Development Committee have announced they will not push for a change in the Telecom licence to enshrine a special tariff to old people.
Deputy Labey is now asking Finance and Economics to convene an extraordinary general meeting of Jersey Telecom to ensure that the wishes of the States – the sole shareholder – to protect the vulnerable are implemented.
And she says it is not right for a States-owned company to have a pricing policy that charges vulnerable Islanders.
She said: ‘For a wholly owned States company like Jersey Telecom to create a certain amount of social hardship to senior citizens is unacceptable.
In some cases the telephone is their lifeline, it is their social lives, it is everything.’
