MTN Visafone Purchase: Telco workers deserve better

By Onuoha Frank . . . .
Mobile communication giant, MTN has concluded the purchase of Visafone network. Yes, MTN now owns Visafone…but that’s not the story.

The real and sad story is that 2000 workers formerly working with Visafone have been added to the unemployment ratio. That’s over 80 per cent of the workforce of the former company. They only get to live on three months salaries – severance package. It didn’t just start with Visafone workers.

MTN has been at it since last year, 2015. According to a source, the company was sold an idea that it could reduce the cost it incurs from paying salaries to staff by relocating its customer service from Lagos to cities like Ibadan where the cost of living is relatively minimal. Food and other basic necessities like shelter and clothing actually cost less outside Lagos. MTN management was said to have bought the idea. The transition was to be carried gradually. The company still retains a couple of customer service centers in Lagos. From late last year however, they have sacked many of their customer service staff in Lagos, cut the salary of most while others were asked to relocate or leave the company.

The company has since, allegedly opened a big customer service branch outside Lagos where it pays staff – graduates with degrees, from N30, 000 to N45, 000. GLO Nigeria according to another source would have also gone the same way had it not been for the timely intervention of the Chairman. The overzealous manager that brought the suggestion was later sacked by the GLO chairman.

In the same year, 2015, a call center worker with MTN’s outsourced company Communication Network Support Services Limited, CNSSL, at Mayfair Garden, Ibeju-Lekki narrated how they were constantly reminded that they were not MTN Nigeria staff – most of the call centers operated by the company are staffed with mostly casual or contract staff. Their contracts were suddenly terminated in July, according to the staff, after MTN Nigeria moved its business from CNSSL to a relatively unknown IT and back-office Kenyan based company ISON BPO.

Although the workers were later reabsorbed for another three months contract by CNSSL, new conditions were set. They were never to go on leave not even the nursing mothers were exempted. HMO was cancelled and work hours increased from 5 hours 30 minutes to 9 hours every day. Those who come to work from the Lagos Mainland often had to leave home 4:20 in the morning and got back by midnight.

Long before the Nigerian Communication Commission, NCC, placed the N1.04 trillion fine on MTN Nigeria in October for failure to deactivate 5.2 million unregistered and improperly registered SIM card from its network, rumors of cuts in operational and personnel costs and allowances started filtering into most of the MTN branches. It soon became a reality after the fine was confirmed leading to the resignation of Sifiso Dabengwa, the CEO, many workers saw their monthly salaries and allowances reduced. Workers that dared to complain were told to either take it or leave.

Read also: Dasukigate: How and why I got involved, by Obaigbena

These flagrant abuses of labor laws and International best labour practices finds its root in the fact that 90 per cent of the workers in the telecommunication companies in Nigeria are not registered with the NLC or any of the viable trade-unions. It’s not for want of trying to register themselves as a union but because each time they try, they are threatened with sack by their employers. This is despite Section 9 (6) (a) of the 2004 Labour Act of Nigeria which provides that “No contract shall make it a condition of employment that a worker shall or shall not join a trade union or shall or shall not relinquish membership of a trade union. (b) Cause the dismissal of, or otherwise prejudice, a worker (i) by reason of trade union membership.”

The National Union of Postal and Telecommunication Employees, NUPTE, which by its name may suggest a union that also covers mobile telecommunication, draws majority of its membership from workers in the courier industry. A great number of its members are federal workers. It is doubtful if one would find a single private mobile telecommunication worker in the membership of NUPTE. The only way to capture the workers in telecommunication industry is to create a separate union for them. It is instructive to note that employers in the industry have already organized themselves into Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON). If unionism is good for the employers the employees should not be denied the same courtesy.

The reality is that the labor system in Nigeria is very weak, and giants like MTN Nigeria are taking advantage of the porosity to perpetuate modern slave conditions on Nigerian workers.

The Ministry of Labor has an urgent work to do and the earlier it starts placing high priority on the welfare of Nigerian workers in the labor market, the better. In the meantime, the Minister of Labor may need to urgently address the unwholesome and contemptuous treatment of workers by employers in the telecommunication sector.

The telecommunication industry has grown to become a major and very important industry in Nigeria hence those who slave in it deserve a better treatment.
​ Frank Onuoha is a writer and a policy expert

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