MTN workers in Jos: Why we are on strike

Striking workers of the MTN call centre in Jos on Saturday appealed to customers hit by their action to be “a little more patient’’ as the contending issues were being resolved.
The staff members of the organisation have been at home since the first week of May.
“We want to resume work; we want to go to our beats and serve Nigeria. That we are at home is not our making,’’ the workers said in Jos through their Chairman, Mr Paul Afolabi.
“We have very crucial issues with the management of Communications Support Service Limited (CNSSL), the company handling the Jos call centre, and shall resume work as soon as they do the right thing,’’ Afolabi added.
He expressed appreciation to members of the Plateau House of Assembly for their intervention toward resolving the matter, and urged them to help to address the issues.
On the workers’ main grouse, Afolabi said that they wanted their salaries harmonised with those of their counterparts in Kano, Lagos, Kaduna and Port Harcourt.
“Our colleagues in those areas receive between N120,000 and N86,000 per month, but we receive N43,600 as salaries in Jos for the same work and same risk,’’ he explained.
He also called for MTN credit on staff lines as obtained in other towns, and disclosed that each staff was entitled to N6, 000 credit per month, a privilege enjoyed in other areas but denied his members.
Afolabi also called for public holiday allowance and night allowance as given to other centres, and explained that staff members were denied the N11, 500 entitlement for every night in the office.
“Instead of N11, 500, what we have is Nescafe and milk satchets, two cubes of sugar and N20 biscuit. This is not fair,’’ he said.
He also alleged that staff members in other centres received 50 Kg of rice and 12 litres of groundnut oil as Christmas gift, a privilege denied his colleagues whom, he said, were usually given 25 kg of rice with no groundnut oil.
Afolabi also alleged that the management was not remitting taxes deducted from their salaries to the Plateau Government, and explained that the situation came to light only recently when tax officials stormed the office.
The official also alleged that they had been forced to register into the Bighma Hospital, Jos, for their National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) services, adding that they were not even allowed to receive treatment beyond N2000.
He also alleged general victimisation, and claimed that 18 staff members were sacked for merely requesting an improvement in working conditions.
NAN reports that the Plateau House of Assembly and the Plateau chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress have intervened in the feud with the issues still yet unresolved.
The House of Assembly on Thursday received the report of the committee directed to investigate the feud, and promised prompt action toward resolving the issues.
Efforts to reach Mr Adeboh Ejiga, the Regional Technical Officer of the CNSSL in Jos, proved abortive.
However, a top CNSSL official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the issues were being resolved with officials of the workers’ union.