· Telecom Firm Abusing Expatriate Quota

Private Telecommunications and Communications Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PTECSSAN) in conjunction with the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), has threatened to disrupt MTN operations in Nigeria, citing the firm’s anti-labour activities.

The union has given the management of the company two weeks to meet its demands, failing which it will cripple its operations across the country.

PTECSSAN President, Comrade Opeyemi Tomori, at a media briefing in Lagos, listed some of the critical issues facing workers in the company to include pay discriminatory, no exit package structure even for long term staff, unholy employee relation practices, abuse of expatriate quota policy, increased in spate of precarious work, among others.

The Nation reports that the union demands that MTN allows every employee that wishes to join the union to do so without further delay or any form of intimidation.

It also called for immediate signing of the Procedural Agreement as proposed by the commencement of negotiations on the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) to meet the yearnings of the workers.

Other demands by the union include immediate recruitment of new employees to ease workload burden on the existing workers in the company, immediate review of the emoluments of the employees in order to correct the inconsistencies therein, immediate removal of expatriates that do what Nigerians can do, among others.

“As leaders of workers in the telecommunication in Nigeria, we are duty bound to seek the protection of the interest of all the workers within the sector. PTECSSAN is therefore committed to ensuring that all necessary steps no matter how painful it may to compel the management of MTN to treats its employees fairly and within the dictates of our laws.

“We therefore implore subscribers, business partners, individuals and corporate organisations that rely on MTN Nigeria Telecommunications Limited to either impress it on the company to change its way towards the union and its members in the organisation by yielding to our demands or source for another alternative to satisfy their business interests as our proposed actions will be wide and compelling with deep implications for their businesses.

“Once again, we restate that if our demands are not fully and appropriately complied with by MTN Nigeria Telecommunication Limited on or before the next 14 days from today, we shall withdraw every guarantee of industrial peace within MTN Nigeria.

“Services may be disrupted across the nation throughout the network from the midnight of the 24th day of August, 2020”, the report quoted Tomori as saying. Comrade Chris Onyeka, who represented the NLC, said Labour “is in full support of the telecommunication workers.”

The NLC, had in 2018 shut down MTN operations in Nigeria over claims that the telecoms firm had refused workers from becoming union members.