Reps query MTN over loss of jobs, demand full list of victims

The House of Representatives Committee on Telecommunications ‎on Wednesday queried the management of one of the leading telecommunications companies, MTN Nigeria over mass disengagement of its personnel in the last few months and vowed to sanction it found culpable.

The committee chaired by Hon Saheed Akinade-Fijabi at the resumed hearing into the massive job loss and drop in revenue in the industry on Wednesday expressed displeasure over the ugly development and the continued absence of the chief executive officers of the telecom companies before the committee since the investigation started.

The committee directed the MTN and others present at Wednesday’s hearing to furnish it with the comprehensive list of persons disengaged from service in the last one year.

The telecoms providers which appeared before the committee included MTN, Etisalat, Airtel, Ntel and Globacom.

MTN ‘s Acting Human Resources Executive, Ajibola Opeoluwa-Calebs, while responding to questions from the committee members explained that 194 staff members voluntarily resigned from the company’s service, out of the 368 staff were disengaged from the service in the last one year.

Ajibola explained that some of the disengaged staff were ‎laid off due to their inability to use the latest technology in the industry, saying that they took the action since their mandate was to provide effective and quality services to their customers.

This according to him have created new vacancies and the company was about to recruit about 240 new staff, explaining that vacancies had been published for 150 position already.

According to him, “In April, we had a special ‎arrangement with some of our employees who had been with us for some time and wants to go and use their skills elsewhere. 194 people left voluntarily, while 65 people were disengaged with the discretion of the management, while other were disengaged before April.”

While speaking chairman of the committee, Hon Saheed Akinade-Fijabi questioned MTN Representatives why 194 staff would voluntarily decide to leave the service at the same time without any reason during a nationwide recession, and demanded the list of affected staff for purpose of clarity.

He said, “Are you sure this voluntary arrangement was not compulsorily voluntary, I think we should verify ‎this, we need the list of those staff that were disengaged by voluntary arrangement, the committee will like to know whether or not due process was followed or whether they were properly engaged ‎ in dialogue or not before they were asked to go.”

In a related development, the Director Human Resources of Airtel Nigeria, Mr Gbemiga Owolabi also told the committee that only 90 staff had left the service of Airtel in the last one year.

According to Owolabi, 60 persons out of this number resigned voluntarily, six were disengaged on ethical grounds while the others were exited.