Avoiding a massive hike in phone charges for the elderly and other vulnerable groups was yesterday backed by Opposition leader and Shadow Telecommunications' Minister Pamela Gordon.

But she added that special low rates for seniors could be abused by cheating members of the public.

She said a tiered system of monthly access charges tailored to phone use rather than across-the-board increases could be the way ahead.

And Ms Gordon added that the Bermuda Telephone Company should put its own house in order by streamlining before penalising the public.

She said: "What we have to do is come out with a win-win arrangement which is going to be acceptable to both parties.

"I don't think we can support a special rate for old age pensioners because people might abuse that.

"A realistic charging system would be through the way people pay -- X number of dollars for X number of calls so we have a tiered system so people pay in accordance with their use of the phone.'' Ms Gordon was speaking after BTC sparked a storm of protest following a warning that it was set to backdate a $12-a-month residential line rental increase to January 1 and double the current $16-a-month charge by the summer.

And pensioners' pressure groups like Age Concern vowed to fight the increases, saying it would unfairly penalise the elderly -- and could lead to many losing their lifeline to the outside world.

The phone firm insisted it would have to increase costs and lay off staff to absorb the cost of a Government directive to cut fees to international carriers.

But Ms Gordon said: "I don't believe you can go to someone months afterwards and ask them to pay for what has already transpired.'' And she warned BTC would have to bite the bullet to reduce its costs and cut staff -- although she said competition would soak up any jobs shed by the current monopoly.

Ms Gordon said: "BTC know they are overstaffed, they have been for some time and they know that.

"The Telephone Company, like any other company, are looking to become more efficient and effective.

"An acceptable compromise, with new companies opening up, would be for them to absorb staff in the new opportunities being created.

"From an issue of morality, it's incorrect and somewhat reprehensible to be going after people, especially senior citizens, many of whom are on fixed incomes or immobile and rely on their phones.'' Ms Gordon added: "BTC are carrying a large number of staff more than they require and they've done this for a very long time.

"If you're not making your bottom line, you look inside before you go outside.

"The responsibility has to rest on its shoulders -- they have to come up with a solution which will allow them to maintain their revenue base.

"A certain number of redundancies would obviously be acceptable because these people who have been made redundant would be very quickly absorbed into new companies.'' "And if they cut their costs, they will realise the additional revenue they're talking about without affecting the seniors.'' Ms Gordon added she would highly recommend BTC staff to new firms looking to start up in the phone business.

She said: "We have very well-trained people in these jobs and before anybody goes outside or overseas, they should look and see what we have here.''