Thirteen employees from the Bahamas Agricultural and Industrial corporation (BAIC) were fired on Friday, according to the corporation.

In a statement, BAIC said “that pursuant to a continuing complete review of all of its operations by its management and board of directors, the corporation engaged in a disengagement exercise which affected 13 persons in various categories including, redundancy, contractual and probation”.

The firings have labelled as politically motivated as several persons fired were supporters of the Progressive Liberal Party.

In November of last year, Ricardo Smith, who suffered an overwhelming loss to Chester Cooper in the deputy leader race at the Progressive Liberal Party’s (PLP) convention last year, was fired from BAIC.

Mr. Smith, who was head of security at BAIC at the time told reporters he was dismissed because of his participation in the convention.

According to the most recent labour force survey, employment in government and government corporations decreased by 2,555 jobs or 6.3 percent.