Staff of Airtel Nigeria Abuja office accuse the company of imposing unfriendly labour polices ON its Nigerian workers. - By George Emine
Less than one year after the acquisition of Zain Nigeria by Bharti Airtel Ltd, crisis is brewing between the management of the company and the workers. Spanco, an Indian business processing outsourcing, BPO firm which was contracted by the new owner, Bharti Airtel Ltd, to handle customer service is having a running battle with staff of the company in the Abuja office.
The workers are accusing Spanco of inhuman treatment and other unfriendly labour policies. The staff believe that working conditions were much better under Zain when two indigenous companies, HR Index and CCNL Nigeria were in charge of customer relations. Investigations by this magazine revealed that as soon as Spanco took over from HR Index and CCNL Nigeria, one of the very first things they did was to dismiss without any reason, all pregnant women at that time.
The worse hit are staff in the customer care unit. Before Spanco took over the human resources of the company, the workers were entitled to three days off every week. This was reduced to two days when Spanco took over; the staff were recently notified that this will be further reduced to one day. The duty hours, which were suppose to come down since the off duty days have been reduced, have however, been jacked up. The workers are expected to be on duty for 10 hours as against seven hours previously with only one hour break. A staff of the department who craved anonymity told this magazine that this is taking its toll on his colleagues.
In what seems like an utter disregard to the previous structure, Spanco has decided to jettison the earlier work arrangement where team leaders supervised the staff under their care. This is no longer the case; team leaders now take calls like every staff. “They don’t have any regard for us. The only people they treat as human beings are their fellow Indians, as if we the Nigerian staff are slaves, just to be used and dumped,” Newsworld was told.
The workers are also complaining of harsh working conditions. Hundreds of workers in a crowded hall are not provided with adequate ventilation and air conditioners when there is power outage as the management complain of high cost of diesel to fuel their generator sets.
This magazine gathered that the workers are facing a bleak future with the planned transfer of the customer care centre to Ogun State. This may mean laying off staff in the Abuja office because the company is not prepared to pay transfer allowances to the workers.
There is a disparity in the salary of the workers. Old staff who were employed by HR Index and CCNL Nigeria, were paid N75, 000 while the new one, engaged by Spanco collect N40, 000. The old staff believe this is an orchestrated plan by Spanco to frustrate them out of work so as to employ new staff they will pay pittance.
“They are doing all these to make sure we get frustrated and leave their work for them. If I leave now, the person they will employ to take over from me will be paid only N40, 000, almost half of what I am earning. So you see why they want to make things difficult for us.” He blamed the problem on the unemployment situation in the country.
To make the matter worse for the workers, the company does not allow them to form a union. Every worker is dealt with as an individual and not as a member of a group. But the workers have started mobilising against the unfriendly policies through text messages. One of such messages read: “Please don’t be scared to say NO to Spanco’s 10 hrs, don’t agree to be tied down for long hours. The extra hours is what gives us time to do other stuff to compensate the salary as we cannot depend on the low sum. Cost of living in Abuja is high! If you do not act and it is implemented, the work conditions will get increasingly worse. If the schedule is published, teams working will not log on; a peaceful way to say NO until it is reviewed. Don’t try sabotage because you want to find favour because you think you will be promoted. You will not be treated differently. Please be wise, let’s all work together! We CAN! BB and sms to as many contacts and groups, Spanco IT agents and team leaders, as possible. The sooner this sms gets to management, the better. Please, keep it moving.”
Some members of staff who spoke with this magazine have vowed to resist any further poor or unhealthy labour policies. “We will not surrender, but we will resist any inhuman treatment. It is time someone said enough is enough. If it is in their own country is this the way they will treat their workers? So why will they deliberately want to subject us to slavery?”
In a statement, Pravin Kumar, chief executive officer, CEO, of the company had noted that “Our relationships with customers are generally life long ones; we invest heavily in building capabilities and then create sustainable models which are replicable. We intend to adopt this approach in Africa.” Is this applicable to the workforce as well?
The company said it is planning to invest $20 million and employ 10,000 people across Africa in three years. Airtel has presence in seven African countries including Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC and Tanzania but its unfriendly labour policies may bring it into confrontation with labour unions.
Attempts to speak with the head of the corporate department proved abortive as he was not on seat.
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