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Nigeria’s telecom sector may face some level of disruptions following the strike embarked by no fewer than 800 workers from the Private Telecommunications and Communications Senior Staff Association.
The union, however, warned of massive disruptions to telecom operations if its demands were not met.
This action is expected to leave millions of subscribers suffer a potential communication blackout.
The union demands include reinstatement of some of its sacked workers, recognition of the union, improved working conditions, and remittance of membership dues.
The union in a strike notice stated, “The strike has become inevitable because of the prevalent precarious working conditions our members are enduring in the sector such as the refusal of the employers to recognise and respect the constitutional rights of the workers to freely associate with the union, and the unjust sack of three members of the union."
The union’s Secretary-General, Okonu Abdullahi, said the association’s 800 workers play a significant role such as managing the base stations for infrastructure companies like 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 members of the union include field maintenance engineers, transmission engineers, customer service engineers, fibre engineers, and other critical staff working for telecom service companies.
The culpable companies include among others, Huawei Technologies Nigeria Limited, Tylium Nigeria Limited, Specific Tools & Techniques, CPNL (Chinese Pacific Networks Limited) and CITCC (China International
Telecommunications Construction Corporation), JUSPARTNER.
The telcos like MTN, Globacom, Airtel, 9mobile own base stations and fibre infrastructure but often outsource management to servicing companies which in turn, subcontract the work to smaller contractors who employed the striking workers .
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 had engaged with the union on the current industrial action, he said, “We have given them ample opportunities 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 them that the government was committed to resolving the issues promptly.
Powei said: “One thing I can assure you is that the strike will not linger. I will start making calls now to see what we can do to ensure that the grievances are addressed.”
Reacting, the President of the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria, Tony Emoekpere, said he was not aware of the potential strike by telecom workers, as the union is not affiliated with the association.
However, Emoekpere emphasised the critical importance of protecting the telecom sector, saying, “Telecom services have become a critical infrastructure that must be safeguarded at all costs.”
He stressed that the telecom industry is a vital asset to the country, adding, “Anything that jeopardises its functionality must be protected. We cannot afford to compromise the stability of this essential sector.”
