MTN Nigeria sacks 65 workers

What this South African company is doing is to ease out jobs and create casuals. I am not sure all the big grammar by Omogbenigun has affected the millions of dollars MTN ferrets out of Nigeria daily. Do we have a government at all?

Your introductory paragraph to this story is misleading. There is no decline in MTN subscriber base; none at all! Rather, MTN's subscriber base has increased at a far higher rate than any other network in Nigeria even within the last 12 months. Yr sub-editor - or whoever prefaced the story - could have checked the NCC website for industry statistics before misleading the public with this misinformation. Besides, the sack of 65 people for performance related issues is hardly newsworthy!

I think MTN should spend more money on its telecom infrastructure improvements...

why would MTN sack people at all after all the money they are making in Nigeria,this just shows that Nigeria is being taken for a ride.

@Tompolo: So the sacking of 65 substantive Staff and replacing them with 1000 Casual Staff is not news worthy?

THEY ARE THIEVES ...... ALLOF THEM

This is another calculated attempt by one of the companies headed by all this Lebanese to turn our graduates to slave,i quite agreed with kase they are trying to convert those designations to casuals. Not untill we have a good leader in Nigeria, sound consumer protection agency and uncompromising NLC then foreigners will continue to ride on the back of some foolish, old and selfish politicians and self glorified millionaires to destroy the future of this country

Honestly, i don't understand this story. MTN South Africa is different from MTN Nigeria, just like Shell UK, Guinness UK and Nestle UK are different from their Nigerian counterparts. The story tends to be a bit misleading, as the dismissals in MTN South Africa is not the same with MTN Nigeria. Your story says MTN SA plans to sack 403 permanent staff and 2100 temporary staff. However MTN Nigeria has sacked 65 permanent staff, after recruiting 1000 contract staff and plans to create another 1500 new permanent jobs.(According to your story) C'mon, there is a difference now! If you remove 65 after hiring 1000, and you still plan to hire another 1500, then it doesn't sound like a company in trouble. And lets not be deceived, several nigerian companies, whether in Oil, Banking, Manufacturing and other telecom firms also recruit graduates as contract staff. It is frowned upon by the Labour unions, but it is apparently not illegal(Is it?? Someone please clarify) So its not a South African or Lebanese thing. To me, it sounds like reorganisation, which is what banks and other organisations do from time to time.

Why do we always attribute problems to factors that are not empirical? For goodness sake, what does a lebaneese ceo have to do with MTN? The CEO is not even lebaneese! If you are not happy about work conditions, why not go start your own telecom company, last I remember its still a free market! The economic crisis is real, only 65 people were sacked, its unfortunate but this happens in biz. Let us be objective and read why they were sacked - for PERFORMANCE reasons. Look MTN customer service is crap and we all know it! A chain is as strong as its weakest link!

@uche@Kase, thank you Uche for your comments, Kase do you want Nitel to run our telecoms, or Nigerian Airways to run our airlines? Oh Ye of short memories, when our Ministers claimed telephone was not for poor man!!! No progressive country has government or government backed companies runing private sector - compare North Korea to South Korea. Please allow busineses run their businesses, if they run it badly they will go bankrupt, if they run it well they become millionaires. Government should play the role of referee only.....

@ Mai harka, True talk. So if they are hiring new guys to make their customer service better, that is what i think we should be watching out for in future, not trying to spike up unnecessary sentiment. I have worked in companies where dismissals were based on other criteria, so i think we should give them a break. On a lighter note, the MTN Nigeria's CEO's name and face looks/sounds somewhat Lebanese sha!!

Hear her? She no dey shame. This is casualisation of the workforce. NLC must rise up against this.

Hear her? She no dey shame. This is casualisation of the workforce. NLC must rise up against this.

MTN AS A COMPANY KNOW WHAT THEY WANT. WE SHOULD BE COPNCERNED ABOUT SERVICE TO THE PEOPLE NOT ABOUT THEIR INTERNAL PROBLEM

MTN responsible to the shareholders of their company. If they have to streamline costs (i.e. layoff employees) they will. This is a free market, if customers are unhappy with the product they can switch to Zain or Glo. With regards management, MTN will go with the best person they can find Nigeria or otherwise. Please folks lets be mature on business issues.

That's so bad our graduates re 2 be turned as slaves not with standing the whole money they make in this country.

MTN supporters here can continue to do that cos they were not directly affected by what happened. The truth is our country is dead to the right of Nigerians; forget about the trash that Omogbogbehin was trying to put up, i am sure she would tell her close friends and family members the truth that MTN & other foreign companies in Nigeria are slave masters. Their explanations have always hinged on the way Nigerian businesses treat Nigerians. Are we saying two illegalities is equal to justice?. You guys should convince me that the way the Lebanese, Indians, Chinese, south African & others imports all sort of second rated skills to Nigeria to occupy top, middle & even low level positions at the expense of the millions of unemployed hands in Nigeria the true meaning of globalization, is that done in their countries? Just imagine someone saying 65 Nigerian professionals were laid off to create 1000 casuals!, this is insult at its peak. I hope NLC & TUC shall look into this. Fellow Nigerians, you may not belief the international business fraud going on in Nigeria until you have business dealings with some of these foreigners. Wish you have cause to relate with the service centres of most of Automobile & Electronic companies in Nigeria; you will surely weep for your motherland, these guys are milking us dry and nobody in Authority is bothered. Would you imagine buying a brand new product from a Sales Gallery with a warranty of 12 months and after 4 months the items packed up and one fool now requested you make some payment a times almost 25% of purchase price, or you have not heard of a brand new automobile of 2 months valued N5M where owner had been made to part with close to N1M for service & repairs even when Vehicle was not involved in an accident. Thanks to GLO and DR Adenuga, MTN & ECONET said per second billing was impossible! even after they have sold SIM PACKS of N200.00 (Two hundred naira only to millions of Nigerians at N20,000.00 (Twenty thousand Naira), they were charging N50 per minute and if their network cuts you off at 2 seconds you were still made to pay same N50. Any business deficient of Character can never pride integrity. Our Leadership have sold us out, can a Nigerian company try a % of these madness elsewhere not even in Ghana. Why cant Nigeria Banks in Ghana employ their evil ways of doing business here in that country, why cant they subject Ghanaians to slavery in the name of TARGET? they cant do that because the leadership are protective of the citizens. The same leadership irresponsibility in Nigeria encouraged some foreign idiots in Ikorodu to built a factory where a generation of Nigerians died in a fire inferno because they were locked up. The foreign legions can continue in their evil ways but they should note that TIME for judgment is here and none of them shall escape.

If you don't want to be turned into slaves in your own country, start the businesses yourself and fix the power problem. Kudos to Adenuga. You shall all die working for Americans, Chinese, Arabs and even South Africans if you don't take positive steps to own businesses yourself.

When are we Nigeria going 2 stand for our right?

Come out and tell the world, the sack guys were involve in the fake web side of MTN south Africa 2010.

It is very sad that up till now nigeria is still backward in all aspect, because there is no good leaders. I pray that what happened in Ghana during Presudent Rawlings should occour in nigeria to flush away all the bad eggs,that is dragging the name of this great country into mould. MTN know what they are doing,this is pure slavery on nigeria graduates.

The truth of the matter is that our labour laws are obsolete and requires ungent review. The multinationals dare not trty what they are dong in Nigeria in neighboring francophone countries where the laws protect workers employment rights. Ask the Nigerian banks who are now operating in Cote D' Ivore, Togo Benin and Gabon about their experiences in employee related matters and they will tell you that it has not been easy firing any worker at will as they do back home Any employee laid off in any of the francophone contries are entitled to at least 1 year salary or the employer is under an obligation to find another job for them before issuing them with sack letters. I am sorry to say that we jave a slave mentality in this country which has affected the dignity and worth of an employee in the eye of multinational companies. Do you blame them, our leaders cannot even create jobs for their citizens and any job offered by multinationals no matter how menial or deegrading is seen as "job creation" It insults our collective intelligence and national pride for a supposed Nigerian citizen to state on this blog that the sack of 65 Nigerans is not "news worthy" and that they are being replaced by 1000 casual workers anyway. Does MTN engage casual workers in other countries where they operate?I know as a fact that big multinational companies are now moving away from retaining permanent workers because of the financial burden of medical treatment, pensions and gratuity, leave bonus, annual bonus, official car and driver and other allowances which permanent employees are entitled to enjoy. Casual (Slave) workers don't qualify for such perks and therefore, are attractive to multinaltionals. MTN Nigeria's model is that of using the e cost of 1 permanent employee to get 100 cheap Nigerian labourers to guarantee investment returns to its South Afican owners. It is indeed a shame on Nigeria, its people and its future.

How much dem go pay the new contract staffs?

If you've ever had to deal with MTN customer "service" staff, you wouldn't pity these people. However, I agree that our protection mechanisms could do with some improvement. I don't quite identify with all the racist stuff though! Naija employers can be just as sharp in their practices as anyone else, sometimes even worse; capitalism na capitalism, no matter for race (para-paraphrasing Fela)

@ UCHE ans MAI HARKA: Thanks for injecting some common sense into this largely XENOPHOBIC discussion. Even with the layoff of 65 staffers, MTN Nigeria still employs HUNDREDS of Nigerians, and in addition to the 1000 contract and the targeted 1500 permanent positions reported in the news story, have created THOUSANDS of other dependent and related jobs for Nigerians. PS: The irony is that some of these xenophobes will likely also be the same folks tearing into the likes of Adenuga, Dangote and Otedola on other threads.

@ Alaye, please feel free to start your own company that will offer employees a full-year's termination pay or find them alternative employment (in addition of course to annual bonuses and car and driver), which are absolutely ridiculous terms anywhere in the world -- even ignoring the current economic climate and that companies in Nigeria virtually have to constitute their own mini-LGA, providing electric power, water, transportation, security, "community relations", and sometimes, even education!

My fellow next readers & Naijarians tumbs up 2u all. I want all 2understand dat MTN Nigeria is trying 2cut cost and maximize profit. Permanent staffs are being laid off only 2recruit contract staffs. Jus as you all have righly pointed out. we have no good leaders & labour laws to protect us. MTN has bad management dat wants to turn our graduates into slaves. Imagine graduates working all nite jus only 2be paid token as pay. D contract signed, attracts No benefits, if you voice out, u re laid off. If dey lay as many as possible, many other unemployed graduates are ready 2work in a more inhuman condition. NCC, Labour leaders & other regulators shuld look into this issue. Its not only Mtn, many other orgs. are also involve in this sharp practises.

@ Dayo, Thanks for the contribution of Reason.

@9ice, na N30,000 dem dey pay dem o (for the first 3months) as against N300,000 wey dem dey pay permanent. From the 4th to the 6th month dem go collect N60,000. Thereafter dem no go collect pass N85,000. True i no blame dem, na the leadership of this we obodo land i blame. I just dey pray for God to touch their heart or male e kukuma replace dem for we o

At Surulere no 57 mERCY eNELI STREET,there is a company called Phardom group inc which the owner of the place engages in all kinds of sharp practices like forging the GIT Insurance of his haulage trucks.The man sacked three people from his place early August and withheld their salaries threatening them to go 2 court.the young men took the said fellow to areA C POLICE STATION BESIDE NATIONAL STADIUM WHERE THE POLICE INVITED THE MAN,HE FEIGNED SICKNESS AND SENT HIS LAWYER.THIS MAN CALLED EPHRAIM INYANG IS INTO RITUALS ,FROGERY AND TRICKSTER,PLS EFCC STEP INTO PHARDOM GROUP INC AND ASK THE MAN WHERE HE GOT HIS GIT PLOICY WITH WHICH HE DOES HAULAGE ,I DON BLOW THE WHIST

OGA O,WHERE THIS PEOPLE WAN GO NOW?......ANYWAY,THEY SHOULD GIVE THEM SOMETHING TO START LIFE WITH.

well it's because we are still under the control of the white people

I spent years working as a temp (casual staff/contract staff) and it has it's advantages. I sometimes chose jobs that were renewed every 3 months so that I could leave whenever I wanted. I have a lot more experience of change management and troubleshooting than most people and over here, there are a lot of people that prefer that model to permanent employment. The hourly/daily rate is usually higher than that of permanent staff (up to 4x) so that for some jobs, I would take 4x the daily rate and work 3 days a week for 6 months, chill during the kids summer holidays and resume in september. That rate makes up for the loss of other benefits but it was good to have weekdays to myself to do other things and attend to the kids. I enjoyed the flexibility and when the employers know you're damn good at the job, they don't mess you about. you get a reputation. I eventually specialised in a certain industry and provided professional cover for companies whose managers were on annual leave, sick and maternity leave. Good pay, business continuity, other employees not overworked, work life balance for me and peace of mind for the managers who are not at work. I don't see any slavery in the situation. If anything, I think nigeria is long overdue for temporary workers who are professionals. I found the nigerians to be a lot more discriminatory, sexist and bullying than a lot of the oyinbo counterparts. I was one of those 80hr week workers in banking and I loved every minute of it. I loved the money, relished the challenge and made friends at work. It wasn't slavery because I had a choice to resign. the impoverished cleaners on the other hand.

It's ironic how some people tar all the white people with same brush calling them derogatory names and turn around to protest when all nigerians are called 419ers. white people are not all racists and slave drivers. The majority of them are barely earning enough to be in full control of their lives let alone anyone else's. If you feel that a particular person or group of persons fits the slave driver bill, refer to the individual and not skin colour or country as racist.

Regardless of this so called reorganisation,MTN as a company is clearly not socially responsible in respect of giving back to Nigerians at least a percentage of lots of billions being made in Nigeria. Can we really blame them? How many of these treasury looters have even thought of investing a part of their loots in Nigeria to create jobs for the benefit of some of their victims(Nigerians). Instead, such funds are being kept overseas to strenghting the multinationals against our local enterpreneurs. Are we not the ones enslaving ourselves?

MTN's sack is only a tip of the iceberg. Wait for Zenith Bank where over 500 staff are billed to go after a staff audit. The mighty have fallen and worker's rights are thrown outside the window. So might for Jim Ovia who prides himself as an icon of social enterprise.

Nigerians: beware of "bad bele". MTN has sacked staff. So have Globacom, Dangote, Oando, etc: blue-blood Nigerian companies. So have Nigerian banks and hundreds of other Nigerian companies, from time to time. So what exactly is the heck! Rather, shouldn't we commend MTN for being the first foreign company to put serious money into what we now celebrate today as the Nigerian telecom revolution? Back in 2000/2001, when the whole world said Nigeria was a no-go area, MTN of South Africa embraced us. As the company wrote its business plan for Nigeria, alomost everybody they sought advice from said they should forget Nigeria and look elsewhere, that we are corrupt, that Nigeria has no infrastructure, blah, blah, blah. Yet MTN took the plunge, and it has paid off so handsomely that the company now has a bigger and more profitable operation in Nigeria (established in 2001) than its home market of South Africa (established in 1993). It's a capitalist world out there. And that world is free for all countries to play in. Rather than begrudge "foreign companies in Nigeria that are expoiting our people", let us too build our own GLOBAL BUSINESS CHAMPIONS. No matter how much MTN invests in its corporate social responsibility in Nigeria (and the company does quite much), it remains a South African Global Business Champion, not a Nigerian Global Champion. Cadbury Nigeria opened for business in 1973, but hasn't ventured abroad to conquer foreign markets for Nigeria. Compare that with Daewoo Corporation of South Korea, established in the same year, and its incredible impact as a South Korean Global Business Champion. So kudos to Adenuga for Globacom, Dele Momodu for Ovation, Leo Stan for Zinox, Mrs. Serilki for Omatek. Same for our banks that have successfully venture abroad: FBN, UBA, GTBank, Zenith, Intercontinental, Access Bank. The FBN subsidiary in the UK has done so well, it has recently set up its own foreign branch, FBN Paris. Conclusion: we encourage more MTNs to come in, while we put in far greater efforts to support own companies that have positioned themselves as Nigerian GLOBAL BUSINESS CHAMPIONS: Globacom, GTBank, Arik Air. That's how the global business world of today works.

While agreeing with Tajudeen that MTN should give back to the society even though it is off the topic, I would also like to commend MTN as probably being the best ran telecom company in Nigeria. They have got no board issues so far and this is about the first time they would lay off staff. I would like to commend them on the issue of training for their staff especially their engineers. They are either sent to South Africa or Ireland or even UAE (Dubai) for training. I have an engineer friend among them so I am in the know.

@ Frederick. Well said, but Cadbury is NOT a Nigerian company.

emmanuel ekuwem that is even talking.he has laid off a lot of staff from his teledom group including his cousin.

It's quite obvious that you people writing these xenophobic inanities have never been self-employed or managers of human resources, particularly of the Nigerian specie.

MTN is no different from others, Goldman sachs sacks the last 3-5% performance every year, If MTN thinks they do not need the 65 people sacked, I personally do not see anything wrong with that, after all they are a plc. Reducing cost while keeping productivity constant is a very good model, If we Nigerians feel so strongly about MTN laying off, I suppose Glo is an option. We just complain too much without doing anything, Be remineded, MTN had to spend money on infrastructure via the capital market, while we are busy investing our own money with T.W Lewin, MOET, Gucci etc, You cant reap what you have not sow.....

The point as i see it is not the sack of 65 workers but, it just brings to the fore the irresponsible Government we have. This avenue just gives us the opportunity to vent our long bottled-up anger. At all that said MTN brought there money into Nigeria against all odds, no one forced them to come do business here thus, they can't complain. They knew the odds b4 coming in. The level of service for most of the foreign companies doing business in Nigeria is obviously lower than in there parent countries, they take us for granted here and Earnest Ndukwe fuels this the more by being intentionally quiet and blind to all there excesses. Banks, Telecoms and other businesses alike continue to trample on the rights of Nigerians and nothing is done about it. Same way Camerounian gendarmes keep killing Nigerians and nothing is done about it. Some American were held hostage by Somali pirates sometime ago and the Captain of the ship gave himself up instead, the American government sent snipers and they took out the kidnappers just to save one American. When will we value each other. We obviously do not value ourselves anymore in Nigeria that's why we treat people like slaves and allow people to treat us like slaves. I don't subscribe to complaining, it's a solution we need. The unions are toothless and should be revamped, if you are sacked you should be entitled to a reasonable pay for the emotional assault and companies should be boycotted if seen as unnecessarily harsh since they need our money to even be in biz. Bad people ar bad no matter where they are from;black, white,Caucasian etc. Nigerians (all that live and work here), fight for one another!

All this noise over what? If you don't like the way a company is operating in our obodo Nigeria, don't patronise them, abi? It is not as if MTN is the govt and you have no choice if you want to register the birth of your child - if you don't like ANY aspect of their service, the way the treat their staff, or even the way they SPELL their name, go elsewhere - telecoms is the first fully competitve market in Nigeria where you have a choice of sevaral valid options. Go and buy your mobile phone from the company that hires the most nigerians, or gives them the most emoluments, or whaterver other criteria you are happy with. Please my people, enough noise!

co readers, let's not blame Omogbenigun, any business owner will use any method to run his business because there is no standard policy set up by our government that cater for the masses as regards the way the business is been run, the number one problem we are having in Nigeria is that our Government have failed, they care less about effect of anybody's action on us as long as they are getting their cake, business owners capitalized on these failures. For example, in telecommunication companies, 90% of their sites are been run on diesel, this is a very high cost for them, and when we complain on the cost per call, they gives this kind of excuses. This and many other factors will definitely give employers the opportunity to sack those dedicated innocent workers and attribute it to some other irrelevant reasons. Our government needs to be discipline and set up standards that will benefits the masses so that these foreigners stop enslaving us in our father’s land.

they were trying to copy Nigeria banks style. you know most of the Nigeria bank's staff are casual workers from HND downward, afterall we dont have govt in this country

There's need for proper just and heard. Can someone ask mtn to be honest in the reason why the sack was made? staff were sacked for no reason. it was an un fair situation because it's not a case of under perforfance. i can least one, two, three names who never had a verbal warning neither did they have a verbal caution in the CR department and they were sacked. what about the case of a young man that was given a commendation letter, a week before the sack? what about the mtn staff that invented " Caller Tune". It was also gathered that an anonymous letter was written by some disgrunted staff stating that their is no growth possibilities for staff, no investigation was carried out on the source of the letter, rather mtn decided to sack those who have spent over 7 years just because he felt they are the once who are disgrunted. always give cogent reasons for your actions.

funmi and MTN are a bunch of liars, they just picked individuals who were not ass kising management at the customer relations departments, the real crust of the matter started when the cr GM andrew esemezie was accused of having sex with staff for promotion favors, and the person kept giving facts in emails, from gist gathered they last mail threatended the management team and they came to a conclusion that it was the older staff that were involved which was baseless. so all this BS by funmi and the depatment heads is just to cover their sorry asses from bad publicity.

everbody is saying his view but remember a company like mtn can not just sack a staff with out reasone of doing so let check our self what brougt sacking in any company,