San Francisco, April 13, (THEWILL) – THEWILL can authoritatively report that LM Ericsson (Nigeria) Limited is set to embark on a mass retrenchment of its Nigerian workforce to pave way for Indian nationals which the company is currently in the process of employing en masse.

More than Four hundred and thirty Nigerian employees of Ericsson will be affected by the purge because of Ericsson’s plan to engage cheaper labour from India.

About fifty Indians have already been employed and flown to Nigeria to familiarize themselves with Ericsson’s operations before the affected employees last day at work.

Those mostly affected are engineers in the Network Operations Centre (Front office and Back office support) dept of the company who were employed from Zain in August last year.

The decision to embark on the mass sack was conveyed to employees during a meeting held on 7th of April 2010 at 9am at the Air Force Officers Mess, Kofo Abayomi Street, Victoria Island, Lagos by the management of the company.

THEWILL investigations revealed that after the decision to sack the employees was conveyed, the management of Ericsson immediately put up vacancy availability on its web site specifically for Indians. See link http://www.ericsson.com/article/100330_opportunities_in_india_20100330101055

Further investigations revealed that Ericsson had entered into a multi-million-dollar service agreement with Zain last year, (Zain was recently acquired by India’s Barti). Part of the deal was to provide engineering and Network operations services to Zain including employing about four hundred and fifty employees in Zain’s Network Operations Centre.

Before the management of Ericsson formalized the employment of the engineers in August 2009, some key issues that were of the greatest concern to the employees were discussed. Issues like salary structures, harmonization of salaries between Ericsson and Zain staff transferring to Ericsson, promotions and salary increases, career advancement in Ericsson, possible job function changes, possible breach of contract between Zain and Ericsson, plans for redundancies, possible sale of Zain amongst others. Ericsson guaranteed the engineers secure and long-term employment.

An authoritative source at Zain confirmed that Zain has not reneged on any part of the service contract it entered with Ericsson adding that the management of Ericsson was just in search of cheaper labour from India at the detriment of Nigeria employees.

Checks at Ericsson also revealed that in total disregard to standard labour and employment regulations, the company is not offering the affected employees any severance package.

THEWILL contacted Mr. Blair Mackenzie, Ericsson’s Human Resources Director for comments on the sack but he said he is not authorized to discuss the subject. He suggested we speak to the Managing Director or the corporate communications department.

Attempts to reach Omasan Ogisi of Ericsson’s corporate communications for comments also failed.

http://thewillnigeria.com/business/4174-Ericsson-Moves-Sack-Nigerian-Employees-Hire-Indians-Replacement.html

I guess this is also a fall out of the recent acquisition of Zain by Bharti Airtel which is an Indian Company. . .

At times like this, i just wonder if there are any labour laws in this country of ours.

@nikkygal,
Let's take this discussion to the Telecom Pros board.

what will our government do to avert this kind of crises? In Uk for instance the job goes to the citiwen first m then to EU before considering others. I have also learnt that even in india no matter how qualified you are m you wont be offered anything if you are a Nigerian. how will these indians get work permit in Nigeria?, Are we not having immigration policies and laws to protect us?

Give just 50 indians a chance in your state In 5-10 years, they will dominate a community even try to run for local government chairman

On second thoughts, let's keep it here. Noticed it made front page. And hence my comments.

Someone told me yesterday that in Ghana, there's a standing rule that any expat must be assisted by a Ghanaian, and the expat cannot hold the position before 5 years, after which a Ghanaian national must take over. Apparently the Nigerian banks in Ghana are beginning to comply.

I find it shameful, that all the governments do here is steal money and stuff. Nobody even cares about the economy or long-term national development. You have MNCs in Nigeria 100% foreign-owned. It is disturbing.
Only a few days back I saw something on LinkedIn about how few Nigerians are existing at C Level, whose CVs can be placed alongside that of foreigners. That may become zero Nigerians anytime soon. In a huge and prosperous nation like this, it is nothing short of tragic.

The government should boot them out

Wot a pity.anyway i dnt blame ericson.wen a graduate has dis input mentality i.e wot d company can do 4 me instead of an output mentality (wot value i can ad 2 d company).afta employin a graduate u stil av 2 re teach dem wot dey r suposed 2 av learnt.dats anoda expense on itr own which cud b avoidable.nyway ericsn has taken d easy way out by employin quality stafs who can do d job wel n putin sentiments bout ericsn bin in naija.simply putin a round peg in a round hole

AjanleKoko:

On second thoughts, let's keep it here. Noticed it made front page. And hence my comments.

Someone told me yesterday that in Ghana, there's a standing rule that any expat must be assisted by a Ghanaian, and the expat cannot hold the position before 5 years, after which a Ghanaian national must take over. Apparently the Nigerian banks in Ghana are beginning to comply.

I find it shameful, that all the governments do here is steal money and stuff. Nobody even cares about the economy or long-term national development. You have MNCs in Nigeria 100% foreign-owned. It is disturbing.
Only a few days back I saw something on LinkedIn about how few Nigerians are existing at C Level, whose CVs can be placed alongside that of foreigners. That may become zero Nigerians anytime soon. In a huge and prosperous nation like this, it is nothing short of tragic.

My sentiments exactly, Am just tired of all the unfair treatments we as Nigerians have to endure in the hands of these so called slave-drivers expats. Isn't it shameful that Nigerians have to be retrenched in 'our' own country to pave way for Indians! Come-on!

We've got the requisite skills & competencies and can also be trained further (local or overseas if need-be) add-value so why hire Indians? We are our own greatest enemies in this country. . . . because i don't understand how we expect our country to improve with policies like this. I didn't even know Ghana had such a 'progressive' policy like that aimed at entrenching local content and boosting employment.

Until we decide to do things right here and properly regulate the influx of these 'so-called expats' then i guess the rate of unemployment will continually be astronomical. . . .

My 2 cents!

wat's the hell are dis people trying to do,to send our people out of a company in their own country and employ foreigners.i don't tink the story is yet complete.it really need part two.i dont tink the federal goverment will fold their hand and do nothing.something must be done.

funny, it is happening in the US too. A lot of the IT jobs and other IT related jobs are being taken over by indians.

Has d government impacted in the life's of the ordinary nigerian in the last 50 years.NO so will they care if all the well paid jobs r taken ova by indians.

This really sucks. .  

Where do we EVEN start, the government seems to care less what becomes of the average man in a suit trying to earn a living. I really can't bring myself to understand that in this day and age. . .slavery & color-preference are the order of the day, i heard the same thing happened in Zain some months back, all their staffs were "sacked" (permission to use the word) & were replaced by Ericsson "Nigerian" staffs ONLY to have them replaced by Indians again?

Imagine someone who didn't even go to a university, did a 6month course in communications (Saw it in his CV), wrote a Cisco Exam, comes down here to start bossing me around, wanting me to call him "master" like my idiotic colleagues call him. I had to give him a piece of myself before quiting. . .

These so-called Indians,Pakistani,Lebanese don't EVEN own NADA in their own land and when they get here, they're given fat paychecks, ride REALLY nice care, live in posh homes and feed fat and graduates like us are made to wipe their asses when the shit all over us?

Isn't there a law or something protecting citizens likes us? How many of these so-called Indians own residency/work permits before they're given such jobs?

I weep for this country   &it's just gonna get worse! Soon enough, your landlord could be an Indian or even your LGC!

Man. . .this sucks to no end.  

bit strange if you ask me?? I will presume the Nigerians salary should be on par with the Indians if not cheaper so why are these roles been outsourced?? does not sound right, unless they want these roles to be handled by the Indians

We have poor labour laws.

Good move!!

Nigerians at home worship anything with lighter skin and foreign (even our un-exposed leaders). That is why every other race dey still dey catch us mugu!! So sad.

This is really really really really sad.

How unfortunate can one get other than being a Nigerian?

If you can't compete for jobs successfully outside Nigeria, and inside Nigeria, things are just as horrendous?

Why do we have labour leaders at all?

I'm aware there's a restructuring  going on in Ericssion but (Replacing Employees with Indians) is a part of the story I do not know of  

kulyie:

Wot a pity.anyway i dnt blame ericson.wen a graduate has dis input mentality i.e wot d company can do 4 me instead of an output mentality (wot value i can ad 2 d company).afta employin a graduate u stil av 2 re teach dem wot dey r suposed 2 av learnt.dats anoda expense on itr own which cud b avoidable.nyway ericsn has taken d easy way out by employin quality stafs who can do d job wel n putin sentiments bout ericsn bin in naija.simply putin a round peg in a round hole

dude wat kind of crap ar you talking about, Nigerians ar one of the most gifted ppl on earth we ar xtremely intelligent and most expatriates ar afraid to even share knowledge wit us cos dey knw dere jobs wud b online, besides graduates newly employed wit a company must undergo "on the job" training that is the norm every in the world. stop dissing Nigerians. 9ja - good ppl, great minds

@All,
They're not replacing locals with Indians per se.
They are replacing local jobs with remote jobs, done by Indians in India. Which I consider to be total rubbish. Why can't Ericsson have a NOC in Nigeria, staffed by Nigerians?

Blah blah blah, blah blah blah
Please go back to tapping Palm wine
too much shortage because of white colar jobs
we need more ogogoro, burukutu, and palm wine
tappers, let the indians have erickson job please.

It is very pathetic to read this kind of thing. Does Nigeria has Labour Law? I still dont understand this belief in most people and even the unexpose people in government that when they just see a lighted skin ass-hole they just lost their senses and belief every lighted skin are white and so to be worship. Can a Nigeria or any black race given such opportunity in India if even the company belong to Nigeria or Black man in India? They will force him to employ their citizen or go out of India.

How heaven will anybody plan to sack our own engineer and import some eye sores Indian and the government are looking? Oh my God I dont want to create issue here because I 'm getting boilling up. Even in any part of EU the law says give priority of jobs first to indigenes, then EU before looking outside and which is the same case most places in the world.

This move should not be accepted. We give thes people too much chance to be honest this was how one Waswani brothers or whatever they called themselves abscounded with billions of Naira unpaid tax pls can any Nigeria or black man do such in India and will not go to life imprisonment? This was how I watched with utmost dismay on NTA news sometime last year that one Lebaness man punched one road safety boss in Abuja for just diverting traffick in an accident scene and even threating to sack the road safety boss there was fire in my heart that day can any one called Nigerian or black man try such in Lebanon? Pls Government wake up, my people wake up we cant keep on put pains and suffering on ourselves to please or pave way for those who has no respect for our race. God bless.

There is a lot of ignorance being spewed out here, like Ajanlekoko pointed out, all this company is doing is to move jobs offshore (there is nothing in that advert that mentions the indians being brought to Nigeria, the jobs are located in India) and this is actually done a lot in the developed world (I lost my job with ebay in Dublin some years back when some IT first level support was moved to Manila) .
Someone has basically made a business case for moving all or a part of the NOC services offshore and hard figures must have been used as a basis for this. Most Telecoms firms in the UK and other developed countries have such offshore services and they are mostly located in Asia (India, Malasia, Phillipines e.t.c).
The two things the Nigerian government could have done to prevent this (without delving too much into the economics) is to:

1. Make the cost of running the NOC from Nigeria cheaper than moving it to India (ensuring stable power supply is a critical factor)
2. Reduce the cost of labour in the form of wages for these Nigerian employees to bring it in line with what the Indians will be earning.

Direct your anger aright, it is the genaral malaise afflicting Nigeria just manifesting in some other form. Make this country good and all other things shall be added unto it. SIMPLES.

duduspace:

There is a lot of ignorance being spewed out here, like Ajanlekoko pointed out, all this company is doing is to move jobs offshore (there is nothing in that advert that mentions the indians being brought to Nigeria, the jobs are located in India) and this is actually done a lot in the developed world (I lost my job with ebay in Dublin some years back when some IT first level support was moved to Manila) .
Someone has basically made a business case for moving the NOC services offshore and hard figures must have been used as a basis for this. Most Telecoms firms in the UK and other developed countries have such offshore services and they are mostly located in Asia (India, Malasia, Phillipines e.t.c).
The two things the Nigerian government could have done to prevent this (without delving too much into the economics) is to:

1. Make the cost of running the NOC from Nigeria cheaper than moving it to India (ensuring stable power supply is a critical factor)
2. Reduce the cost of labour in the form of wages for these Nigerian employees to bring it in line with what the Indians will be earning.

Direct your anger aright, it is the genaral malaise afflicting Nigeria just manifesting in some other form. Make this country good and all other things shall be added unto it. SIMPLES.

My Friend, did you read the original post where it say about fifty Indians have already been employed and moved to Nigeria and more are on the way. How is that outsourcing to India to you?

even if it is outsourcing jobs to india, i sincerly do not want to believe that cost of labour in India is cheaper than Nigeria,

the only pro for this move might be supply of electricity

There will be fire on the mountian if this happens

otokx:

We have poor labour laws.

No sir, we have NO labour laws!!!!Are laws are subject to change, dependent on whose pocket it favors

@Tmoni

The cost of labor in India is actually far less cheaper compare to Nigeria

Demain_man:

My Friend, did you read the original post where it say about fifty Indians have already been employed and moved to Nigeria and more are on the way. How is that outsourcing to India to you?

And did you read the advert for jobs that was quoted by the original poster? no where in there does it say those jobs are for Nigeria all the offices mentioned were based in India.
Even if for arguments sake we agree that those people employed will be brought to Nigeria and there exists a law controlling the approval of work permits, isn't it our own people who will go ahead to collect bribes and issue those work permits?

Tmoni:

even if it is outsourcing jobs to india, i sincerly do not want to believe that cost of labour in India is cheaper than Nigeria,

the only pro for this move might be supply of electricity

Supply of electricity is a major one, its the total cost of operations that will be considered at an executive level as these sorts of decisions aren't usually taken lightly. No one will make this sort of decision if there are no obvious gains in profit or efficiency and Sony Ericsson isn't owned by Indians anyway.

duduspace:

And did you read the advert for jobs that was quoted by the original poster? no where in there does it say those jobs are for Nigeria all the offices mentioned were based in India.
Even if for arguments sake we agree that those people employed will be brought to Nigeria and there exists a law controlling the approval of work permits, isn't it our own people who will go ahead to collect bribes and issue those work permits?

The fact that the nigerians are getting the sack and the indians are getting recruited and being brought in to take over the jobs from nigerians in nigeria means one thing and one thing alone. Reduce unemployment in India, Increase it for Nigerians in NIGERIA. not offshore o!!!

Is quite sad indeed. SAD!!!