Uproar as MTN sacks workers in Nigeria without benefits

The sacking of hundreds of staff of giant telecommunications company, MTN, in its Nigeria offices without severance pay has been generating uproar in the country.

MTN, according to some of the affected staff, did not properly informed them about their dismissal, neither did it respect their contractual agreements.

It was gathered that the MTN staff were sacked on Friday.

The affected staff claimed that what MTN told them was that it was planning to outsource staff, insisting that the company did not tell them it was going to sack them.

According to them, but since it was not the first time that would happen, they took the information casually.

One of the affected staff who had spent five years with MTN said: “In 2012 they outsourced us to a company called CNSSL. Now what we have heard is that MTN is taking us away from CNSSL to an Indian company, ISON BPO.”

“We were told by MTN about two weeks ago that the contracts would terminate at the end of September. With no further information, we thought we would return to MTN.

“But on reaching office on Friday, they placed security all over the place, numbering up to 50 private security operatives.”

“For five years since I have been with them, salaries have not been reviewed. We work on public holidays, yet there were no plans for any overtime payments. We operate an invoice system, which allows payments within intervals of a month, starting from the 15th of every month.

“As we speak nobody is talking about our salaries for the last 15 days we have worked. A lot of us have outstanding leave days that should be monetized but no one is talking about that. Even when they pay the salaries; a lot of us are usually sub-paid, meaning that our salaries are deducted without explanations.”

He said while a company could hire and fire, employees also should be fairly remunerated.

Speaking with CityMirrorNews, another affected worker said he had just finished a night shift and stepped out to get some money from an Authomated Teller Machines, ATM, when he observed the strange development.

He said: “They searched me like a common criminal. Both when I was going out and when I was returning inside. They did not even allow me inside. “I kept asking what was happening because I did not understand.”

“I  had worked with the MTN group of companies for eight years, but was suddenly locked out of office on Friday, without explanations from his employers.

“They refused even to let us inside the compound. They only asked that a security operative address us. They said they have outsourced us, but a careful study of the process shows that MTN is still the owners of the company. For example, after outsourcing us to CNSSL, in 2012, MTN still maintained full control of the company and we are sure they are the ones outsourcing us again.

“They are moving their call centre away from Lagos which means we have practically been sacked. And there are at least 4000 of us, if not more, because we are spread across Nigeria.”