greggng:

I once worked with an Indian firm as a casual worker, o mg,  i saw hell. the moment i was opportune to move to another department i counted my self lucky.They were not happy, on one occasion an Indian man touched my chick and said your chick is getting better now. He warned me that if care is not taken that am gonna lose my job.I thought he was joking , but he seized  my card and when i demanded why he did that , he told me  in his broken English, your chick big big, your government have no job for you, go go and suffer. I cried for my country because even Indians  can now make jest of Nigeria, the govt need to do something about the unemployment rate.

oskamboo:

pls start planin your way out of any coy dat Indians happen to be in the management circle not to talk of the one ownin by them,frankly speakin,they have this slave instinct in their brains, they make sure they turn flourishing coy into rags,they always add to level of unemplyment by staff reductn,they ensure that one man does three men's job thereby killing ones health gradualy. They cant do us any gud.I hate this God forsaken people wit passion

That is what you get when majority of Nigerians have a poor mentality.

The mentality of "get rich quick with minimal and low quality effort".

The mentality of "e don do, we don try" instead of giving the best and the highest standard.

When you Nigerians start developing the mentality of being the best and delivering the best in WHATEVER you do, then this will stop happening.

At the moment, if we want to progress, we have no option but to import the Indians, Lebanese and the Chinese to deliver.

So more of them please for now, we do not have the sufficient talent to do it alone.

greggng:

I once worked with an Indian firm as a casual worker, o mg, i saw hell. the moment i was opportune to move to another department i counted my self lucky.They were not happy, on one occasion an Indian man touched my chick and said your chick is getting better now. He warned me that if care is not taken that am gonna lose my job.I thought he was joking , but he seized  my card and when i demanded why he did that , he told me  in his broken English, your chick big big, your government have no job for you, go go and suffer. I cried for my country because even Indians  can now make jest of Nigeria, the govt need to do something about the unemployment rate.

They say that Nigeria is a corrupt state and that every nigerian has a price tag from our president to the shoemaker on the streets, so they bribe their way in other to conveniently carry out this inhuman and demeaning treats on unfortunate Nigerians working for them. I talk with 1st hand experince coz I'm presently working with them. The Government is to me held responsible for this mess. THE TRUTH IS, AN INDIAN WILL NEVER INVEST IN A CORRUPT FREE SOCIETY.

I pray the Indians and Chinese can come and take over the Nigerian restaurant industry in UK as well.

So many fcking Nigerian ediots running restaurants in the UK.

One stewpid restaurant I called once and ordered for Bitter Leaf soup and poundo told me that even though they have the soup, they had no poundo left (supply chain failure). I then told her that is fine and I will buy. She told me that the price is still the same as it would have been with poundo. I asked her how can she charge same price for an incomplete package, she said "that is how we do it" and she can not reduce the price.

Another Nigerian restaurant (I can't believe what rights these people have to call their chop-joints restaurants), that I ordered food over the phone from told me it will take one hour, it took 2 hours 15 mins, and when it came, it was the wrong order. When I called to complain about the service quality and wrong order, she said they ran out of the item I ordered so she substituted with another (without phoning me to check my preferences). All she said was she was sorry for the delay, no kind of compensation.

I ordered again from the same "restaurant" the week after and the food took 2 hours 30mins to be delivered. Food delivery in all other restaurants take 45mins and if they are late, they will apologise profusely and compensate. When I called to complain at the long wait, they just gave me a "OK. Sorry" apology like if what is doing me.

I can't wait till these majority foools that run Nigeria restaurants are put out of business. Only 1 or 2 are well run out of the tens we have in London. Our work ethic and mentality is major fcked!

Indians want to make air-tel lean, mean and cheap and then sell it off to the chinnese who will replace each and every single one of you with slant-eyed loud yellow bellied and far more intelligent and hard working bruce-lees.
Get used to earning welfare pay sooner or later your least productive and bitching assrs will be out of work.
Mr. Telephone operator.

Damysa:
no wonder I have not been able to reach their customer care for days now to confirm my registration. I have registered, yet they keep sending me messages to go and register. This mufus must not cut off my line

Sister, I would suggest you do like me and change network. They are messed up and have been acting that way since taking over from Zain. I can't wait for the day when we can port our numbers to another network!

My unreserved sympathy for those at the sharp end of forced structural adjustments. The truth though is that they face like the vast majority of us (with the obvious exception of government workers) the reality of globalisation worsened by the peculiarities of our very bad economy. However we need cheaper calls, like cheaper fuel, cheaper rents, etc and someone quite frankly has to pay for it.

Secondly, there is a prevailing misconception about the involvement of foreigners in economic activities via investments as those which bring sophisticated, overpaid jobs alone sometimes with conditions prevalent in the country of origin. Far from it because business considerations are governed 100% by cost and profit considerations.

I think the extractive industry has caused this and we know why they pay out of sync with the local economy. One, their products are 100% exported at a price no one can control, two the guilt factor, knowing it is a natural resource.

This skewed system has dulled our senses to the twin reasons why I for one would take my hard earned money abroad - an expansive and expensive market and two, cheap and sophisticated labour.

Yes, Asia dominates world manufacturing today simply because they undercut western wages. Apple was accused yesterday of turning a blind eye to child labour practices among its suppliers and just today Nokia is tossing 3,500 jobs and shifting production from low cost Romania to lower cost China, yet no one perceives them as evil.

Airtel has every right to restructure its costs to survive and thrive. Anyway in present day Nigeria 240k for call centre job, haba. How much do air traffic controllers earn, how about engineers or junior doctors. Its unbelievably skewed.

Thus no thanks to Asians the aura and era of jackpot telecoms is fast fading for a more balanced reality.

All the world citizenry cannot be at the top.
Someone has to be the kick-toy at the very bottom of the barrell scapings in world standings.
Its nigeria.

India is in the middle not because of their economy but their hardwork, patience and honesty.

Nigeria is at the bottom: still like a monkey with the top embezzling and the rest used as kickball by immigrants.
killed all over the world at the slightest excuse and generally shaite.

If nigeria is better than any place , then that place is either a desert or war-torn since the 50's.
toilet.

If you hate what airtel is doing, please boycott their products and services. Lets stand for something for once. Their no justification for reducing a persons salary from 79,000 to 29,000. It is a shame and I hope they regret it. Someone run a campaign to boycott airtel's products.

I've read the op's post and most of the comments here. For those who don't understand let me state the problems call center agents in airtel go through:

1. Airtel for a while has won best customer service. How did they achieve it? Call center agents.
2. They receive calls from all sorts of people and go through a lot of verbal abuse which on a normal day, a lot of Nigerians can't take.
3. They are supposed to resolve customer complaints with professionalism and some of these calls can last a long time, yet management also requires their call time to be at least 1 min long. Imagine if you had a problem and you had to be cut off after one min? Most of them help customers solve their problems regardless of the time.
4. Some of them have ear problems from being on the phone for a long time yet management wants to cancel health insurance?

I could go on but i'll stop here for now just to give you an idea. For those saying how can you pay a call centre agent 75k, is that money too much? It's supposed to be a dollar for a call from what they agreed with management but management is trying to cheat them now.

Those other staff that are paid in millions nko? Are some of them not loafing about?

If they won best customer service, isn't it right that the call center agents get a part of the bonus too no matter how small? Yet they shared (no kidding) bonuses going into millions per other staff.

To be honest, those of you talking, ask yourselves if you will take 29,000 per month. is it enough for your upkeep? If we want to be fair, even if indians and the rest take over companies to make things work, it doesn't mean that our people shouldn't survive. Well, unless you're in those shoes, please don't say it's ok.

I have a relative there who is a graduate. She has won best call center agent at least twice now. For those saying Nigerians are not hardworking, i can bet you that they are. anyway, i told her to leave whether she gets another job or not. Since they have agreed that the job is not for graduates and they're doing so by slashing salaries. No need in diminishing her worth (degree wise). They'll definitely get people who will jump at their costs and I hope those ones too after a while won't become agitated cos that money is tooo small with little or no other benefits.

Nigeria's situation will not define her or determine her future. I refuse to allow myself or others allow the country dictate what our lives will become.

@Otoks,
you're just one piece of trash. . . None of your replies so far have made any sensible sense or driven home any point.
You need to grow up and face reality!

Airtel's problems didnt start today, you and i know that this firm has always being in this news right from inception when the original owners, Econet contemplated changing their name. The government of Nigeria has nothing to do as far as it has committment i self to total privatisation of the telecom industry.

I only pity our brothers who might be affected one way or the other, their only solace is to take a hike for a better paying job or sit down with airtel and re-adjust their extravagant life-style.

my airtel line has been in the cooler for more than three months now.

in my area there is either no service at all or service is so bad you can't
make or recieve any calls.

now tell me, is this the way to run a profitable telecoms company?

rather than slashing workers' pay i think these indians should learn to
put their house in order. someone should tell them that they can reduce
salary from now till next year but if people can't make calls, no fresh
money can come into their coffers and if no fresh money cames in they
are as good as dead!

its the arpu (average revenue per user) that matters, blimey!

It is you MOSHOODN that needs to grow up and face reality; the business has to be run in the face of harsh economic situation which is made worse by lack of Government assistance. The truth be told, there are just no jobs in this our country.

Otokx, if i get you right,you are saying that graduates should be paid peanuts as salary,some of whom i' guess would be married with children, from all your contributions,its obvious you'd do worse if GOD blesses you to be an employer of labour,

I even heard the company paid huge bonuses as profit sharing to its core staffs 2months ago and suddenly wants to slash salary of its contract staffs,

May GOD never take you to that height as our children would die of hardship under you,
I'm sure many Nairalanders said a big Amen to Boyloaf's prayers for you,

I am amazed at us! Our legislators are busy paying themselves criminal wages, we have not said anything;
our public office holders are busy siphoning state funds with impunity, we are playing deaf;
Our states are refusing to pay 18,000 naira minimum wage, we are yet to burn down the country;

If our govts and capable Nigerians had created enough jobs for Nigerians would we have opened up our economy to all comers?
We can count the number of serious Nigerian businesses on the fingers of one hand. Look what happened/is happening to our banks.
Where are the groundut pyramids, PAN, etc

It pains me like it does everybody but THIS IS A SELF INFLICTED INJURY

Vision 2010, now 20:20:20 will probably become vision 2050

NEPA, NITEL, RAILWAY CORPORATION, WATER WORKS, DAILY TIMES, NPF (PROVIDENT FUND), NPF (POLICE FORCE), NIPOST, +++++ We can keep counting.

Let's stop playing the ostrich!!!

@solexg
slashing or increasing salary is a business strategy. It has nothing to do with being a graduate or not. Capitalism like democracy has its disadvantages.

what do u expect?
havent u heard of "INDIAN HEMP"
before u apply for work there

i believe it is so unfair,don't know why indians behave like this

pash4naija:

I've read the op's post and most of the comments here. For those who don't understand let me state the problems call center agents in airtel go through:

1. Airtel for a while has won best customer service. How did they achieve it? Call center agents.
2. They receive calls from all sorts of people and go through a lot of verbal abuse which on a normal day, a lot of Nigerians can't take.
3. They are supposed to resolve customer complaints with professionalism and some of these calls can last a long time, yet management also requires their call time to be at least 1 min long. Imagine if you had a problem and you had to be cut off after one min? Most of them help customers solve their problems regardless of the time.
4. Some of them have ear problems from being on the phone for a long time yet management wants to cancel health insurance?

I could go on but i'll stop here for now just to give you an idea. For those saying how can you pay a call centre agent 75k, is that money too much? It's supposed to be a dollar for a call from what they agreed with management but management is trying to cheat them now.

Those other staff that are paid in millions nko? Are some of them not loafing about?

If they won best customer service, isn't it right that the call center agents get a part of the bonus too no matter how small? Yet they shared (no kidding) bonuses going into millions per other staff.

To be honest, those of you talking, ask yourselves if you will take 29,000 per month. is it enough for your upkeep? If we want to be fair, even if indians and the rest take over companies to make things work, it doesn't mean that our people shouldn't survive. Well, unless you're in those shoes, please don't say it's ok.

I have a relative there who is a graduate. She has won best call center agent at least twice now. For those saying Nigerians are not hardworking, i can bet you that they are. anyway, i told her to leave whether she gets another job or not. Since they have agreed that the job is not for graduates and they're doing so by slashing salaries. No need in diminishing her worth (degree wise). They'll definitely get people who will jump at their costs and I hope those ones too after a while won't become agitated cos that money is tooo small with little or no other benefits.

Nigeria's situation will not define her or determine her future. I refuse to allow myself or others allow the country dictate what our lives will become. 

Intellectual words of wisdom,

folahann:

I think all the people calling for the workers to quit know how easy it is to get a job in Nigeria. Just go to any company and tell them you just quit your, you'll be employed straight up. SMDH.


On a serious note, what happened to the business term called Lay-off. If Airtel cannot survive with the amount they pay for labour, then they can lay-off some of their workers using the proper procedure. Give the workers that would be affected enough notice and compensate them.
But this shows the Indians are actually stingy, they want to keep their current workforce and slash labour cost by 60%! There are several other sensible measures of reducing cost. The indians should know if they're intelligent.
Even if you must reduce salary, 60% is way too much. 10 or 15 is ok.

I hope peeps remember when there was economy crunch, western countries didn't slash salaries, they laid-off workers and compensated them.

True Talk @pasa4naija,
did you know that while they greedily want to retain the number of staff that have been churning out Customer Service Awards, they have also decided to increased minimum working hours to 48hours per week(both morning and evening shifts)
Also there used to be a 3 day OFF day to "recharge" batteries but now this "cunningly-mad" peeps are offering just 1 day OFF now?

If you all think that, it is easy to jump ship as at when things are not working well when you have given your all, remember just resigning and walking away is def. not going to solve the rot.

PS: yes I work (soon to be in the past tense-worked-prayerfully) there,

That is to say wahala dey - hope naija airtel no go be like dat sha. good luck to Airtel Naija.

Huummmmmm, Indians? They are very funny bunch. I remember years back they worked with us in a Federal Govt company in Port Harcourt as technical back-up I mean experts. But to our amazement, they destroyed one of the vital plants and till today that plant is dead. Nigerian personnel warned them but they felt that they knew nothing. The name of the Indian company is Cakasa and they are in the oil service industry. Why working with us, one day I was driving towards Port Harcourt from Eleme with them in a Jetta Executive car and bought N50 banana on the road. I gave them to share with me but they refused but thanked me anyway. I now ate the five or six fingers of banana all alone. To my surprise, they became offended on why I should eat the banana alone at once as that quantity should have been eaten in five or six days. that is to say one finger of banana for one day. Mind you the banana was bought by me with my own money. They are terrible people, polluting the environment with all manners of chemical affluent. I pass Eleme Petrochemicals almost daily and sometimes do go there to either cash money in Union Bank located there or on official duty into the plant complex area, that place is more than Kirikiri maximum prison. Soldiers everywhere. Even when the bloody fools travel along the Eleme Port Harcourt route, the kind of intimidation their heavily armed long military convoys exhibit on innocent Nigerian road users is another story entirely. Nothing for the host communities in terms of development except environmental pollution. They salary they pay Nigerians dying slowly in that plant is another issue all together, just peanuts and the work like slaves. I have a lot of people known to me working there. Even the left over Coaster buses used by former Eleme Petrochem under NNPC is still in use by Nigerian workers yet the Indians change vehicles for themselves and the intimidating soldiers all the time.

solexg:

Otokx, if i get you right,you are saying that graduates should be paid peanuts as salary,some of whom i' guess would be married with children, from all your contributions,its obvious you'd do worse if GOD blesses you to be an employer of labour,

I even heard the company paid huge bonuses as profit sharing to its core staffs 2months ago and suddenly wants to slash salary of its contract staffs,

May GOD never take you to that height as our children would die of hardship under you,
I'm sure many Nairalanders said a big Amen to Boyloaf's prayers for you,

otokx is an indian.u know how they tink an act.dont waste ur resources bro.@otokx this is nairaland not indianland.stay off

Hope it's not true that these persons have been relieved of their Job.

It's just disgusting. You can just imagine what happened just this past week (September ending).
Read along please. This injustice should not be allowed in our dear country, NIGERIA.


Airtel telecommunications last week sacked all their customer care
staff due to salary disagreement. The so called people sacked were labelled contract staff
and were paid about N80,000/month before the Indians took over from Zain network.
These Indians are offering N30,000/month (less than $200) with no additional incentive.
Prior to this, the Indians reduced the 3-off days with 6-working days to 1-off day with
6-working days and longer working hours.
At least three thousand Nigerians have lost their jobs now. This need to be condemned.
This is a great injustice and modern day slavery perpetrated by a third world Country
in a our own dear land. Should we allow this Indians to continue to do these?   

Brainchap:

It's just disgusting. You can just imagine what happened just this past week (September ending).
Read along please. This injustice should not be allowed in our dear country, NIGERIA.


Airtel telecommunications last week sacked all their customer care
staff due to salary disagreement. The so called people sacked were labelled contract staff
and were paid about N80,000/month before the Indians took over from Zain network.
These Indians are offering N30,000/month (less than $200) with no additional incentive.
Prior to this, the Indians reduced the 3-off days with 6-working days to 1-off day with
6-working days and longer working hours.
At least three thousand Nigerians have lost their jobs now. This need to be condemned.
This is a great injustice and modern day slavery perpetrated by a third world Country
in a our own dear land. Should we allow this Indians to continue to do these?   

and yet an indiana stooge lyk otokx is talking rubbish!

hmmmmm!

Strange world we live in.

I feel for those that are directly affected by this, its not fair.

However, the truth must be said (or should I say, this is my opinion). Call center jobs are not really meant for graduates, i am not saying you cannot start small but 1-2yrs is enough for you to move on. When our graduates pick up all the jobs that drop-outs and secondary school leavers and undergraduates should be doing to survive, how do we move forward as a nation. We keep talkin about graduates this graduates that, when we know they arent the only ones that need jobs, infact what does a call centre agent do that he/she needs a degree for? As for Indians, they are like everyone else, some are terrible, some are lovable. Would I want to work for one, NO! Do i work with them, yeah, about 50-60 and i do like them and put them in their place when they mess up. i think the same applies to a whole lot of other nations.

I think 50k considering the requirements for the job is okay. A staff bus, health insurance, a pension plan and other benefits, maybe 30k might be considered. Sometimes jobs with good benefits are better if you do your analysis very well. On another note, didnt people think and say that instead of our banks laying off staff, they should have reduced salaries? Now here is a company doing just that,  me thinks these are tough times and we all need to brace up. Reduce your lau lau, save for an emergency, dont buy a car if you dont need to and the last time I checked there arent many 3D movies around, why are we buying 3D screens,

For those shouting above their voice, wait till you start your business then lets know what you think after that.

For all those text messages about protests, if the company cant make money and folds up, know that you contributed to several people in Nigeria losing their jobs.

I RECEIVED THIS MESSAGE ON MY BB, DUNNO HOW TRUE IT IS :

Re: Airtel Call Centre Suspension: The True Position

Contrary to the rumours and outright falsehood being peddled across certain social media platforms, Airtel Nigeria has not sacked any of its employess and does not have any intention to cut staff salaries.

Airtel employees remain committed.

Regarding last Friday's Call Centre suspension, the contract of two agencies to our BPO partners, Spanco and Tech Mahindra, who provide us with Call Centre services, expired Friday, September 30th. About 60 per cent of call centre Agents are employees of these two agencies. Despite the contract expiration, several of these agents will be re-absorbed into the system and new agents will also be employed. So, the issue of mass sack, salary cut and poor benefits are outright falsehood.

Airtel is committed to realizing its vision of being the most loved brand in Nigeria and will continue to ensure that the dialogue between its call centre partners and their employees is fruitful and productive and in tandem with Nigerian Labour Laws and practices.

We also remain passionate in our quest to continue to provide our customers with the best service experience.

call me an Indian if you like but the truth should be told; the call center agents are not staff of Airtel so it is not possible to be sacked by someone you do not work for. We now know that the contracts of one of the agents expired on September 30, 2011; the other one expires January 31, 2012.