Telephone bosses will never be allowed off the hook for letting down their workers, according to the original consultant fired by the firm.

Kevin Fisher, President of Dartmouth Research and Consulting, slammed the phone company last night for using his firm as part of a "charade'' before severing their contract in an "underhanded'' manner.

Dartmouth gave the Bermuda Telephone Company a range of recommendations to improve staff-management relations during a 13-month review in 1995.

But last night the US management expert accused BTC's beleaguered Board of ignoring his advice and walking into serious problems because of unprofessional behaviour.

Mr. Fisher spoke exclusively to The Royal Gazette after last week's Board of Inquiry report condemned the firm for firing 14 managers in February 1996.

He has always said Dartmouth never planned to make any redundancies.

And Mr. Fisher, speaking from his Boston office, said BTC had even been given a management handbook by Dartmouth, claiming his firm was still owed $117,000 from the original contract.

One of the Inquiry's key recommendations was for all BTC employees to be given a handbook.

Now The Royal Gazette has obtained a copy of the handbook produced by Dartmouth for telephone company workers in September 1995.

It includes vital details about how managers and staff should deal with company grievances and redundancies -- policies which the Board of Inquiry said BTC must now adopt.

The only comment from a BTC spokesman yesterday was: "While it is always important to learn from history, BTC wishes to move on and concentrate on the issues at hand, namely serving our customers and meeting the challenges of a competitive communications marketplace.'' But Mr. Fisher said: "The BTC Board has basically gone missing. Where has it been? "This sort of behaviour would not have been tolerated in any similar-sized publicly-treated corporation in the US or Britain.'' BTC Board slammed by US consultant "There are people who deserve jobs there who have been deliberately maligned.

It's about command and control at BTC.

"It's `Do as I say or else you are out of here'. I felt that Board of Inquiry report was dead on.'' He said the Board of Inquiry was right to criticise BTC Chairman Dr. James King for making the 14 managers redundant.

And Mr. Fisher added: "I do feel Dartmouth has now been vindicated for making the recommendations we made to the company.

"We did a lot of work on competency and job descriptions to try to help BTC capitalise on their position in the market place.

"BTC could have avoided these problems if they hadn't been so underhanded in the manner in which they went about replacing Dartmouth.'' The Royal Gazette revealed earlier this year that Dartmouth's project leader Birute Adams joined Dr. King for a new management review after she was fired by Mr. Fisher.

Dr. King and Ms Adams, an American now understood to have set up a consultancy business in Bermuda, cut the 14 management posts.

The Inquiry report said the on-the-spot redundancies "poisoned the work environment of BTC'', adding that a major crisis developed.

Mr. Fisher added: "BTC still owe us money for the work we performed, specifically for the development of a handbook that includes references to grievance procedures.

"But the whole thing was simply a charade on the part of the BTC Board to placate certain people.

"I'm not surprised they are having these problems. As a company, we were treated very unfairly.'' LOBSTER LICENCE DEADLINE FHP GVT Lobster licence deadline Fishermen have until 5 p.m. today to apply for a commercial lobster licence for the coming season. There are 20 trap licences issued each year for the season, which runs from September 1 to March 31.

Applications should be made to the Fisheries Department.