* Airtel Operators to Defend Action Before Lagos State House of Assembly
Airtel employees have pleaded with the Federal Government to compel the management of the telecommunications company to comply with basic labour standards as obtained in the telecommunications sector.
This was contained in a statement signed by Mr Foluso Taiwo, Chairman of the Airtel Branch of the National Union of Postal and Telecommunications Employees (NUPTE) after the protest of Airtel workers in Abuja on Tuesday.
The statement quoted Taiwo as refuting the Airtel management’s claim that the company had been complying with market trends and practices, regarding welfare of Airtel workers.
“We observed that before more than 3000 staff were laid off by Airtel and the sacked workers could not call one another free nor browse the Internet freely,’’ he said.
Taiwo said that the management of Airtel had migrated the lines of the sacked workers to default, an act, he said, was only applicable to sacked workers.
On the latest sacking of workers, he said: “we are demanding that we should be compensated for the numbers of months and years we have put in the services of the company,’’ he said.
Taiwo added that those still working should be given the right environment to work.
“There are health and occupational hazards affecting us now and that may affect us sooner in the future, even when we might have left the company, ’’ he said.
Airtel workers on Tuesday protested the slashing of their salaries and the mass sacking of workers.
The workers were seen carrying placards with inscriptions: “We are no slaves to Indians’’, “Independence gift: Airtel- sacks 3000 workers
“Airtel offers N29,000 excluding tax, six days a week, eight hours a day, 48 hours a week, six days annual leave to Nigerian graduates. “We work but we are still poor. Say no to slavery’’.
“The revolution is here, Nigeria is our own’’.
The Lagos State House of Assembly on Tuesday summoned the management of Airtel, a telecommunication company, to appear before it on Oct. 11 to explain the alleged sack of about 1,000 Nigerians and their replacement with foreigners.
The lawmakers made the call during their plenary session after Mr Lanre Oshun, (ACN – Lagos Mainland II) had under a matter of urgent public importance, called the attention of the House to the mass sack.
Oshun said that about 1,000 Nigerians were sacked and replaced with Indian nationals who were invited to the country.
He said that the House should investigate the criteria used for the downsizing and recruitment.
The lawmaker said that the Indians, who replaced the Nigerians, were placed on higher salaries and said there was a need to question why Nigerians were being downgraded.
The lawmakers, while debating the issue, raised concerns about consumer protection and violation of workers’ rights, which they argued, foreign companies did not adhere to when dealing with Nigerian employees.
They stressed the need for the Nigerian Communications Commission to regulate the activities of the telecommunication industry to ensure that the rights of Nigerian workers were not trampled.
The lawmakers resolved to invite the company because it was operating in Lagos and residents of the state were involved.
Mr Ayinla Yusuf (ACN – Mushin I), who said he had worked as a cleaner in the UK, argued that immigration rules in other countries did not make it easy for other nationals to take jobs of their citizens.
“Do not let us sell our birthright in Nigeria,” Yusuf said.
Mr Rotimi Olowo (ACN-Somolu I) said it was wrong to allow Nigerians play second fiddle in their own country.
He stressed the need for both the Federal Government and the Nigerian Immigration Service to ensure Nigerians got fair treatment in recruitment agreements.
Olowo stressed the need to look at the number of Nigerians who were employed in the company.
The Speaker, Mr Adeyemi Ikuforiji, ruled that there was a need for the Assembly to invite the company on “a fact finding mission”.
He ruled, after a unanimous vote, that the company should appear before the Assembly on Oct. 11 at 10 a. m.
Courtesy NAN