Nigeria’s telecom sector is on the verge of shutting down after over 800 workers from the Private Telecommunications and Communications Senior Staff Association went on strike, threatening to cripple services across the country.
The organisation, which is mostly made up of contract workers, warned of severe disruptions to telecom operations if its demands were not granted, potentially leaving millions of users without access to communication.
The strike began on Monday, and the union’s demands include, among other things, the reinstatement of some of its dismissed employees, union recognition, improved working conditions, and the payment of membership dues.
“The strike has become inevitable because of the prevalent precarious working conditions our members are enduring in the sector, the refusal of the employers to recognise and respect the constitutional right of these workers to freely associate with the union, and the unjust sack of three members of the union,” it stated in its seven-day strike notice.
The union’s Secretary-General, Okonu Abdullahi, esaid the association’s 800 workers play a significant role in managing critical infrastructure like base stations for infrastructure companies such as IHS, Huawei, etc.
“The implications of the strike will be massive because we have told all our members not to respond to any service outage from our employers. The fact remains that there are outages every day, and if our engineers do not respond to those outages, subscribers in those areas will be affected,” he said.
He stated that members of the union include field maintenance engineers, gearbox engineers, customer care engineers, fibre engineers, and other important personnel employed by telecom service providers.
Huawei Technologies Nigeria Limited, Tylium Nigeria Limited, Specific Tools & Techniques, CPNL (Chinese Pacific Networks Limited), and CITCC (China International Telecommunications Construction Corporation), as well as Juniper, are among the firms responsible.
It was gathered that telcos like MTN, Globacom, Airtel, and 9Mobile own base stations and fibre infrastructure but often outsource management to servicing companies.
These corporations, in turn, may subcontract the work to smaller contractors, who hire the striking workers. This complicated web of outsourcing has raised worries about employee welfare and job security.
In April, the telecom union went on strike over a similar scenario, which was addressed through a reconciliation meeting held by the Ministry of Labour between the union and the telecom servicing businesses.
According to the PTECSSAN secretary, “The labour ministry had intervened in our previous industrial action, but unfortunately, the companies are still repeating the same issues, which have now escalated because we have more members participating in this strike.”
When asked if the Federal Government or the companies have engaged with the union on the current industrial action, he said, “We have given them ample opportunity to address our demands, but they have chosen to ignore us. If they continue to neglect our grievances, we will have no choice but to take more drastic measures.”
The officer in charge of the telecoms sector at the Ministry of Labour, Princess Powei, acknowledged the workers’ concerns and assured that the government is committed to resolving the issues promptly.
Powei, who was part of the team that ended the workers’ previous walkout in April, declared, “One thing I can tell you is that the strike will not last. I will begin making calls immediately to see what we can do to guarantee that the issues are handled.”
In a phone discussion with a journalist, a top Huawei executive from China, known only as Bruce, denied that any of his team members were involved in the PTECSSAN’s ongoing strike.
Bruce reported that all employees were working in the office and had not gotten any notice of the strike.
“As far as I know, everyone is working, and I don’t think anyone is involved in this,” Bruce said. “However, I will verify the situation with my team.”
Speaking about field workers, the Huawei representative acknowledged that they might be impacted by the strike but clarified that they were not directly employed by Huawei. Instead, they were part of subcontracting teams.
In April, when the union embarked on a similar strike, Gbenga Adebayo, Chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecom Operators of Nigeria, stated that the union was unknown to mobile operators, saying, “This group is not known to us in ALTON, and the companies mentioned are not members of ALTON. ALTON subscribes to freedom of association, and we are open to dialogue for the greater good,” he said in a chat.
Asked if it had any recognition or affiliation with the telcos, Abdullahi responded, “We’ve tried to contact ALTON, but they’ve never made themselves available to discuss issues with us.
“We wrote to them in 2020 and 2021, sent reminders, and even followed up with calls, but they always had excuses, such as their chairman being out of the country. We’re wondering why they’re ignoring us, especially since they’re aware of our existence,” he said.
