MTN JOS CALL CENTRE STAFF UNION PRESS CONFERENCE

A PRESS CONFERENCE PRESENTED BY THE MTN JOS CALL CENTRE STAFF UNION, LARGER HOUSE (PLATEAU YOUTH COUNCIL) AND OTHER PRESSURE GROUPS ON THE PLATEAU IN REACTION TO THE ISSUE OF SLAVE WAGE, DEHUMANIZING WORKING CONDITIONS AND UNLAWFUL TERMINATION OF APPOINTMENT IN MTN JOS CALL CENTRE


Gentlemen of the press,

We the entire staff of MTN Jos Call Centre hereby wish to notify the members of the public, stakeholders, security operatives, relevant agencies and government parastatals at all levels on the prevailing inhuman treatment and unlawful termination of appointment meted on us as Nigerians and employees of the MTN Jos Call Centre Operations.

Sequel to the commencement of operations in June 2010, under an outsourcing arrangement between MTN Nigeria and Communication Network Support Services Limited (CNSSL), a cross section of Nigerian graduates from across the country have been short-paid, molested and enslaved by these neo-compradors. The said CNSSL is owned and controlled by Engr. Gbenga Adebayo, who doubles as CNSSL CEO and Chairman Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria, ALTON. Since the commencement of operations, several taylorian tactics have been used to suppress us in our fatherland, ranging from short-paying of employees, dehumanizing conditions of service, hire-and-fire at will and unlawful termination of appointment style adopted by the management (not fewer than 4000 workers were employed between 2010 and 2012 but not up to 2000 workers still work at the Call Centre).

The intervention and picketing of the Jos Call Centre by the Nigerian Labour Congress, Plateau Council on the 14th March, 2012, led to the formation of workers union which was earlier banned, and the signing of Collective Bargaining Agreement between the Management, the NLC and the Union, the content which was not honoured and implemented by the Management of CNSSL, rather an open campaign and propaganda discouraging workers from belonging to the union was met with all sorts of harassments and intimidation, this is evident by the gun-point arrest and detention of Union officials who were deceitfully invited for negotiation at the Administrative Office in Rayfield, Jos (a video clip evidence abounds).

Our request as a Union has been the call on Management to harmonize our salaries with those of Kaduna, Kano, Lagos and Ilorin Call Centre Operations. A confirmed staff at any of these Call Centers has a minimum salary of N96000 (Ninety-six Thousand Naira only) and works for less hours (16 days and 4 nights) compared to us in Jos (after confirmation in Jos our Salary is) with more working hours (18 days and 5 nights). At these Call Centre operations, a monthly airtime of N6000 worth is given to employees, staff buses are available, sleeping mattresses during the night shifts, public holiday allowances are been paid and staff are promoted based on performance but none of these is applicable in MTN Jos Call Centre. Stagnation is the order of the day as no promotion or salary review was made for more than 2years, until the recent intervention of the NLC.

The intervention of NLC led to the signing of a CBA by the Management, NLC and the Union which agree in part that negotiations and harmonization of salaries and working condition will end on or before 30th of April, 2012. Suffice it to say that Management has refused in totality to honour this agreement which it earlier appended to. The deadlock created by the Management led to the indefinite closure of the Jos Call Centre operations on the 30th of April, 2012 under the guise of fumigation and subsequently it was claimed to be for security reasons by the Management.

To this effect, we the affected staff have been at home for over three months now without pay. Instead of the Management to open a window for negotiation to enable us resume work, it has refused to dialogue and negotiate with the Union, rather it was busy sending threatening messages for workers to resume work and sending some of the beneficiaries our short-payment to lure us back to work without any improved condition of service or Collective Bargaining Agreement signed.

It is worthy of note at this juncture that there was an invitation from the Plateau State House of Assembly to appear before it due to the issues stated above. At this instance, several revelations came to bare. Prominent among these revelations are:

i.                     The disparity of salary between MTN Jos Call Centre and other MTN Call Centers managed by the Communications Network Support Services Limited (CNSSL)

ii.                   That the CNSSL Management has not been remitting consistently the correct amount of tax deducted from staff salaries, and also skipped some months without remitting to the Plateau State Board of Internal Revenue

iii.                  That CNSSL Management has not been remitting the pension deductions made from staff salaries to the appropriate Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs). This is a direct violation of the Pension’s ACT, hence, a financial crime that is open to the public investigations

iv.                 That the Management of CNSSL has been deducting a whooping sum of N100,000 (One Hundred Thousand Naira/annum) on every staff since inception without proper NHIS in place. This is contrary to the NHIS ACT as provisioned by the Federal Government.

Further investigations revealed that CNSSL Management has been deducting the sum of N34,735 (Thirty-four Thousand, Seven Hundred and Thirty-five Naira/annum) from every staff since inception as insurance-workmen compensation which under the law is supposed to be paid by the Management.

In view of the above, we will like to reiterate that relevant documents abound as exhibits to buttress the economic and financial crimes raised above.

Sequel to the above, the General Manager Operations of CNSSL came with a new salary proposal on the 3rd of July, 2012. In this meeting, the GMO made it clear that the principal partner (MTN) has finally agreed to harmonize the salary of Jos Call Centre with other MTN Call Centers under the same CNSSL Management, but the proposed salary presented fell blatantly short of what is obtainable in other Call Centers across the country.

It is on the heels of the foregoing that the Management team decided to send both text messages and e-mails to all employees announcing that it has commenced the process of winding down and disengagement of the over 1,700 workforce in the Call Centre. The principal partner (MTN Nigeria) has been adequately informed by the Union but it has continued to remain silent. The Representative of MTN came to Jos recently and requested for the first time to know what was going on. According to him, the Management of CNSSL has tagged all the workers as being violent, aggressive and branded the entire Plateau State as unsafe for business investments – note for their personal and political interest. But concluded that from the above observation, these assertions were not true and promised on behalf of MTN to resolve the matter amicably as soon as possible. Now, do we cross our hands and watch our future been handled with kid gloves? No! We will act. Legislations may control our actions but it will never control our thinking, we choose to be controlled, but it’s a free choice.

From the prevailing situations, we the entire workers at the MTN Jos Call Centre, the Larger House (PYC) and other pressure groups on the Plateau hereby state our position and our collective resolve as follows:

i.                     That we insist unequivocally that every anomaly in our scheme of service be rectified and our salaries be harmonized with those of our colleagues in Lagos, Kaduna, Kano and Ilorin under the same CNSSL outsourcing management

ii.                   That we have had our fair share of the suffering and lack of payment within the period of our stay at home (3months). It is pertinent to state here that this attitude of the Management has brought untold hardship on our members, families and dependants.

iii.                  That MTN Nigeria for whom we work and CNSSL should ensure that actions are taken with immediate effect to enable us resume work and all our outstanding salaries paid

Unfortunately, on the 26th July, 2012 the entire staff of CNSSL received termination letter from their Management terminating the appointment of over 1,700 workers on grounds of redundancy. This unlawful act of blackmail to send over 1,700 workers back to the Labour market for selfish and political reasons is unacceptable. We hereby call on MTN to urgently intervene in this situation and resolve the matter once and for all by either taking over the Call Centre or handling us over to a responsible and reputable outsourcing vendor who will be able to re-engage the workers back to their job.

On a final note, we wish to re-emphasize to MTN Nigeria, the Government, the entire telecommunications stakeholders and the general public our continuous peaceful conduct as a Union which our past activities throughout the closure period have portrayed peace and calm, we collectively promised our peaceful co-existence with any Management delegated to handle issues surrounding our employment by MTN Nigeria. As we hope all pending issues are redressed objectively.

We wish to finally submit here, that we have tried our best to contact every relevant organization, agency and parastatal that is in one way connected and relevant to our industry. These are inclusive of:

·         Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC)

·         Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC)

·         Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)

·         Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity

·         National Assembly, both Upper and Lower Chambers

·         Plateau State House of Assembly

·         Every Security Agency across the state

·         MTN Nigeria

·         Federal Ministry of Communications

·         Plateau State Governor

·         NUPTE

Thank you.

Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria

Long live Plateau State

Long live MTN Nigeria

Signed

Comr. Paul Afolabi

Chairman NUPTE MTN Jos Call Centre


SOURCE http://halttheinjustice..co.uk/2012/08/mtn-jos-call-centre-staff-union-press.html

Source please!

Sorry the source is
http://halttheinjustice..co.uk/2012/08/mtn-jos-call-centre-staff-union-press.html

Moderator, please put it on front page . You never know who will read it