Badmushazan:
NLC also needs to look at how ISON bpo is using her staff active 8hours per day with headset on, and u only earn 34k with lot of work pressure at the end of the month. no wonder MTN subscriber have bad experience when calling 180. don't blame the agents blame MTN and ISON bpo..

Babygiwa:
The violence that characterized the three-day picketing of MTN Nigeria by the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) attracted condemnation from several quarters, especially from industry watchers, Nigerian workers, and affected MTN staff.

Now, it has emerged that the destruction of MTN assets, violence and threats violate an important section of the International Labour Organization ethics of which the NLC is a member

Founded in 1919, the ILO’s main goal is to bring together governments, employers and workers of its member states to set labour standards, develop policies and devise programmes promoting decent work for all women and men.

Under the ILO Principles concerning the right to strike, section 8.1 which focuses on picketing clearly states: Taking part in picketing and firmly but peacefully inciting other workers to keep away from their workplace cannot be considered unlawful. The case is different, however, when picketing is accompanied by violence or coercion of non-strikers in an attempt to interfere with their freedom to work; such acts constitute criminal offences in many countries.

The requirement that strike pickets can only be set up near an enterprise does not infringe the principles of freedom of association (ibid., paras. 586 and 587).

On Monday July 9, 2018, officials of the NLC were at the MTN offices to picket however, the protest became violent and disorganized as property within MTN premises were vandalized. Doors and gates were destroyed, several staff of the company were manhandled and in the Ikoyi head office, the MTN flag was lowered and the NLC flag hoisted in its place.

Critical national infrastructure across the country were breached and attempts were made to seriously compromise them like turning off the independent power plants at the Ojota switch station, Lagos.

Following this outright display of violence and disregard for the ILO code of conduct, several respectable Nigerians have come out to condemn the NLC. Notable among these are renowned UK based accountant and social commentator, Feyi Fawehinmi and veteran radio presenter, Jimi Disu who during his radio session, called the act by the NCC a fund-raising exercise. In his words: “As far as I am concerned, they went on a fund-raising exercise.

Now it didn’t just end there, if you are going to picket a company let’s just say for all intents and purposes, does it then mean that you must go on a destroying mission? You went in there and destroyed their properties. Here we are, our existence economically is somewhat premised on what we call foreign investment, now is this how you are going to treat companies that come?”

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) as well as the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) have openly condemned these acts of violence, and the ALTON went as far as saying it will advise MTN Nigeria to consider preventive shutdown of network if telecoms facilities are damaged.

Tony Ojobo, the spokesman of the NCC in a statement confirmed that on Monday night the NCC activated the MOU with NSCDC to protect the switch stations and BTSs belonging to MTN and other telecom operators.

Tony also added that, “NCC has also briefed the security agencies on developments particularly the implications of the attempt to shut down the Ojota switch station. A collapse of the telecommunications grid is likely if these attacks on MTN and other telecom facilities are not abated.”

Reiterating MTN’s position on unionising, Tobechukwu Okigbo, Corporate Relations Executive, MTN Nigeria said, “We do not prevent our employees from associating amongst themselves as they deem fit and owe our employees the obligation to ensure they are not compelled to join associations. MTN supports the freedom of association as enshrined in the Nigerian Constitution.”

All workers have rights that should be protected. We work hard to not only ensure that this is done but also to ensure that our company is a great place to Work. We will continue to champion our peoples’ rights, whether they are part of a union or not and work hard to minimise disruptions in service to our customers.”

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/07/how-nlcs-picketing-of-mtn-violated-global-ilo-rule/

airsaylongcon:
This long epistle is a hatchet ghost writer for MTN

Has MTN not in itself violated ILO on unionism? Mtn that uses overt and covert threats to staff who dare join union aren't in violation of ILO rules? NLC no even picket dem reach

Lucid1:
It's foolishness on NLCs part.they had better alternatives, I hate violence of any sort

Tunagee:
Good for MTN. Very exploitative organisation. Contracts staff work for 10-13 years of hard labour, even work more than the permanent staff, yet no conversion of status to permanent status.
A lot of injustice done to staff and contract staffs all in the name of no union allowed. They are now claiming they did not discourage staff from joining union, whereas they know that they have strict policies forbidding staff from joining or forming unions. Useless organisation. I worked there for years. At a particular time, MTN Nig.formed an outsourcing firm to take care of call center staffs welfare in MTN, all pensions and taxes were deducted from these staffs salaries, but were never remitted to the pension company. aside that, there were no medicals extended to staff family members. When the company was wound up, all the pension claims by these staffs were forfeited cos no union to fight for the staffs. On another occasion MTN contract staffs at the call centers were suddenly outsourced to an Indian slave driver firm called ISON BPO international who tells the staffs they would only pay N45,000 against N100,000 plus paid by MTN. The sad part is that MTN never intervened on this poor payment by their contractors forcing all the staffs to resign in their thousands. This is just few of the many injustices to staff. All these because u are not allowed to belong to unions as a staff. Stupid injustice!!!! That serves u well MTN.

4Play:


Unemployment is extremely high, but you guys are busy waging war on the few major private sector employers.

By doing this, you deter investors from coming in who already have to cope with obstacles like insecurity, poor infrastructure, skills shortage, e.t.c

gabbasin:
weiin una want make jimi disu talk other than to condemn d picketing wen be say na Mtn dey sponsor him programs for radio, but seriously speaking violence and vandalism should not be part of protest and demonstration in this country again