MTN's Jos call centre sealed

The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) last week sealed up the premises of the MTN Call Centre in Jos, citing the “undue exploitation and short changing of staff”, All Africa writes.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Jibrin Bancir, chairman, Plateau chapter of NLC, led the NLC team that sealed the call centre.

Bancir told NAN that the action became necessary because of the refusal of CNSSL, the company managing the MTN call centre, to meet an earlier agreement to review the working conditions.

He said the congress met with the company in December 2011, where both discussed the need to operate based on the MTN standards as obtained in other parts of the country.

Bancir said the centre would remain sealed until the company reviewed the conditions of service of the workers in the Jos office to meet up with their counterparts in other parts of the country, Vanguard says.

Adekoya Adeyemi, head of human resources at CNSSL, however, refused to comment on the development and said “it is not time for interviews”.

One of the staff, who gave his name simply as Ibrahim, also said the exploitation had been going on for a long time.

“We have tried to discuss with management as gentle Nigerians so that we can resolve the matter amicably and maturely, but that has not yielded any fruit.”