Politics Nigeria Report in March Warned About Company With 6 new Cases In Oyo

A March 25th report by an online newspaper, POLITICS NIGERIA had warned about iSON xperiences, a firm in Ibadan, Oyo state over poor social distancing and isolation practices prior to the recent discovery of several cases of the virus among its staff.

Earlier today, Oyo Governor, Seyi Makinde announced that the 6 new cases of the virus discovered came from the company thus confirming the newspaper's report.

POLITICS NIGERIA can authoritatively confirm that the number of cases as at the time of filing this report has hit 57.

Read the report below;

Despite the surge in the cases of coronavirus infection in Nigeria, a customer experience management firm in Ibadan, iSON Xperiences, has refused to take recommended measures to protect its workers and clients.

iSON Xperiences' Ibadan office is located on the third floor of Kingsway Building, Dugbe, Ibadan, Oyo State.

According to the company's website, iSON with over 2,500 staff, provides inbound customer service, inbound-dealer helpdesk, outbound sales, showrooms staff deployment and management, social media car and data cleanup services in 18 countries.

The company is in partnership with some telecommunications service providers, including MTN, Airtel and Vodafone.

As of Tuesday morning, there are 40 confirmed cases in Nigeria. Lagos state has the highest number of confirmed coronavirus cases. As of the time of reporting, Lagos state had reported 28 cases, Abuja - 7, Ogun - 2, Ekiti - 1, Edo - 1 and Oyo - 1.

This paper reported how the COVID-19 confirmation test for the suspected case at Bodija in Ibadan came back positive on Sunday morning.

While the state government has shut down all schools, the World Health Organisation (WHO), in its guidelines advised employers to promote good respiratory hygiene in the workplace.

"Display posters promoting respiratory hygiene. Combine this with other communication measures such as offering guidance from occupational health and safety officers, briefing at meetings and information on the intranet etc.

Ensure that face masks and/or paper tissues are available at your workplaces, for those who develop a runny nose or cough at work, along with closed bins for hygienically disposing of them," the documents read.
Also, WHO said employees should avoid congested places and be vigilant enough to ascertain if they are fit to work in the office or from home.

Situation at iSON Xperiences office

iSON Xperiences office in Ibadan, which houses about 400 customer care agents daily, has failed to comply with the WHO guidelines. Although the company had instructed some of its agents to work from home, the workplace is still congested and social distancing not observed.

Moreover, the sleeping arrangement for the agents on night duty is risky as they sleep together on mats and beds. A corner is dedicated for hand washing but there is no provision for face masks by the management.
One of the agents working with Airtel, who asked not to be named for fear of victimisation, told this reporter that they had failed to convince the company to adopt the work-from-home option.

"Funny enough, they said some people should work from home but most of us frontline agents are still coming to work every day, where working from home can easily be achieved."

"The sleeping conditions are bad and the company is not even concerned. They just keep on saying we should take necessary precautions," he said.

A nurse, Otun Damilola, said the situation is a threat to the lives of the workers.

"This is a deliberate attempt to spread the virus, and it is inhuman. Germany reduced crowds to a gathering of two, Lagos State asked public servants from grade 1 to 12 to stay home, but some people still think it's a joke."

"That kind of action can cause the virus to spread to over 5000 people if any of them is infected," she added.

She advised the government to close down the company to prevent further spread.

The Chief Press Secretary to Governor Seyi Makinde, Taiwo Adisa, decried the insensitivity of the company, saying the state government had not been aware of the situation.

"It is not a joke that countries are shutting down. We have to take this seriously," he told POLITICS NIGERIA on Monday morning.

He, however, promised to draw the attention of relevant authorities to it.

iSON reacts

Jamila Yusuf, a line manager in the Ibadan office of the company, promised to get back to our reporter when contacted about the welfare of the workers on Monday morning.

Meanwhile, Tope Omikunle, the company's Human resources manager, denied subjecting the workers to inhuman conditions.

"We have put necessary measures in place to protect our workers," He told this reporter on Monday evening.
He said the company placed sanitisers at different spots in its office and has given out face masks to its security officers. Pictorial evidence obtained by POLITICS NIGERIA however proved otherwise.

Commenting on some workers who were mandated to work in the office, Mr Omikunle said; "there is no ban yet on working from the office by the state government but the company is trying a method that is sustainable and cannot compromise the health of its staff."

SOURCE: https://politicsnigeria.com/coronavirus-firm-in-ibadan-endangers-workers-with-crowded-workspace-amidst-pandemic/

https://politicsnigeria.com/company-indicted-in-politics-nigerias-report-shuts-down-as-57-workers-contract-coronavirus/

Just imagine the sweat shop they are running under the guise of customer service..

God.

Dear Nairalanders, I would've been considering thinking otherwise but I can't allow the devil to jubilate over my life. Suicide is not my portion, amen.

I'm faced with house rent and hunger problems currently. Don't know where else to run to please. Help me anyway you can please. No amount is small.

My account details on my profile please. Thanks so much.

PLEASE CLOSE DOWN THIS SLAVE CAMP

I felt they had closed down this office. Conservatively that figure isn’t 57. Imagine the number of people the staffs had contact with in Micra’s, bikes , at the market, relaxation spot & even at home. Now imagine how many those people have also been in contact with. Scary right? That’s why Oyo need to be lockdown partially

What tha fvck did I just see :I

Is that suppose to be makeshift slavery camp or what ?

G

No wonder customer service reps in Nigeria are far from being nice.

Lol WTF

Working in nigerian companies is not easy

Meanwhile, Read on how to use email marketing to get clients HERE

Seyi makinde has never been serious with COVID-19

he doesn't want to offend Ibadan people.
He does whatever they want weither good or bad.

Ibadan can't really develop under him; because all what Ibadan people want is who will allow them to be doing whatever they want.Any government that does contrary is tagged enemy of the masses

No lockdown, nothing

This is serious. There's a very thin line between making money and remaining human while at it. God help us! When you are blessed, no matter what you have passed through, please retain the very essence of your existence... Your SOUL!

MAY GOD EASE UR AFFAIRS BRO

Hmmmmmmmmm

.

They don't want to lose customers. They feel social distancing is bad business for them

I cant read this thread but I urge the SOUTH EAST governors to wake up and take this virus serious.

You will never see Igbos comment on thread like this but they carry other states matter on their heads.

May God heal our land.

Like seriously

Damm i know someone working there ...........The location of the office is something to worry about as it is in the heart of Ibadan increasing the risk of transmission.

Seyi Makinde na Audio Governor na... even after test confirmation, he still took 24 hours for him to notify the General public which company it is, I know El'Rufai and Wike might have their shortcomings but such nonsense can never happen under their watch

Partial Lockdown my black ass

.

It's serious

I worked with ison.
those guys sleeping on the mats are to be blamed. I worked permanent afternoon shift: 3 to 11pm and criteria to be employed are you must be Male and you must be living within vicinity of the company. we closed 11pm on point, buses move by 11:10pm and you will be dropped at your street junctions. Many lied that they are living within the company vicinity but actually living in faraway places like sango, apata, iwo road. these set of people can't join buses in the closing hour and can't go home. only option for them is to sleep in call centre and follow night shift buses to their different locations in the morning. In the night, people move to where a/c is turn off (that's why they clustered in one place, ison floor is a big place).
Facemask can't be used as call agent because you have to be audible enough for the customer.
if social distancing is to be implemented, agent as to be reduced but at peak time- 6pm to 10:30pm, all hands must be on deck because of high influx of calls, must of these calls are hoax calls such as "my phone got burnt where can I get new one?" "my girlfriend is pregnant, what can I do?".
you must attend to these calls with politeness and courtesy, and agent must not drop call.

we are in a country where people cheat their ways to get job, where people curse out call centre agents for fun just because they will not reply and if customers are not attended to, customers will be shouting we can't get so so network call centre.

ison is a minimum academic requirements company I.e. National Diploma. dont come with masters and expect to be treated differently.

ison has pension package, health insurance package that covers the whole family of the employee, staff buses, in-house clinic, canteens etc.

last year, ison took about 40 of their staffs to Dubai and about 3 years ago, they went to zanzibar, Tanzania-- ALL EXPENSES PAID.

in Ghana, a single person infected over 500 people in his company. asymptomatic can infect a lot of people unknowingly. So, we should drop blame games.

if anyone wants to complain and not satisfied with ison treatments of the employees. put the blame of Ajimobi, he brought ison to Ibadan.

Mehn there's no hope in this country. All these suffering for less than 100dollars

Nigerians easily forget how hard things in the country is when they come online to React. This condition you see up there and even worse, is very common in our society. Make no mistake about it

[quote author=Kemchriss post=89763199]Good day my great people of nairaland,am deeply sorry to bother you all with my issue, I need your financial assistance anything will do pls,I will work with a private school and I have been managing myself with the little I have on me since the beginning. Of the lockdown till now but things have taken another dimension since last week since I don't have anything on me and I lived with my grandma and to eat has become a great problem for us,I have to bury my pride to write this since I don't have any other option.please anything will do pls just to get some food stuff at home pls. 0229226872,Wema bank.Thank you all and God bless and enrich your pocket.

NB please I have been coming here since 2015 but only as a guest. It is this situation that made me register this afternoon please ,am not lying and you can call me to confirm my story please[/quote



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