Telecoms services face disruption as workers threaten strike
Data and call services may face disruption from Wednesday as the Private Telecommunications and Communications Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PTECSSAN) on Monday insisted on a three day warning strike.
The General Secretary of the association, Okonu Abdullahi said that its members were embarking on the strike to protest arbitrary sack of workers and casualization.
He said subcontracting or outsourcing which had bedeviled the industry could no longer be allowed to continue as it had shortchanged workers.
“We have tried speaking to the telecommunications companies at different times, but we met with a brick wall”.
The Private Telecommunications and Communications Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PTECSSAN), in a statement had alleged breach of freedom of association, right of workers to organize, victimization of union members, poor and discriminatory remuneration, abuse of expatriate quota, intimidation, harassment and verbal assaults of employees among other anti-labour practices.
Justifying the strike threat, human rights activist and legal practitioner, Ayo Ademiluyi said, “This would be the first nationwide strike of the only union in the telecommunications industry.
“Less than five per cent of the telecoms workers are permanent workers in the industry. The big telcos don’t have permanent staff, they only have managerial staff who are being laid off on excuse of Covid-19”.
He said that most big telcos did not allow trade unionism, adding that there were many cases in the industrial court seeking to enforce workers’ right to collective bargaining as enshrined in International Labour Conventions.
