MTN's Jos call centre woes persist

Telecom Paper reports.

Paul Afolabi, the leader of the workers, told the News Agency of Nigeria that they would not listen to appeals to resume work until a valid agreement was signed.

Communication Network Support Services, to which MTN outsourced its call centre operations, shut the doors on the workers under the pretext that they were fumigating the premises.

Afolabi, who is the call centre branch chairman of the National Union of Postal and Telecommunications Employees, said they discovered the company wanted to recall some staff and leave others, AllAfrica.com says.

He said: “On Friday, we barricaded all the entrances to the call centre when we learnt that the management wanted some of the staff they believed to be loyal to them to resume work.

“When that attempt failed, they resorted to pleading with us to resume work without any formal agreement to show that they are ready to do the things we are demanding for.”

The chairman said it was the management that asked the staff to stay off duty and they would remain as such until their demands were met, Osun Defender states.

“Our demands are very simple - review our wages and make them to be at par with our colleagues in other call centres across the country, and recall our suspended colleagues.

“We do not know the reason for the sudden desperation to call us back, but whatever reason it may be, nobody will resume until our demands are met.”