Ericsson
Nigeria has relieved 160 Nigerians of their duties in the company while
replacing them with Indians, saying it was a move carried out in 180
countries it operated.
File photo: Job seekers in Nigeria
About 160 permanent and outsourced Nigerian workers in the Network
Operating Centre of Ericsson Nigeria, have been sacked by the local
subsidiary of the global telecommunications solutions provider.
According to an investigative report by Punch newspaper,
the disengagement of the workers which takes effect on Sunday, December
4, 2016, affected 55 full-time employees of the company.
Sources revealed that the transfer had been going on since last
year when some workers were laid off while some Indians were brought
into the country to study the management of telecommunications
infrastructure in the country, and had been recruited to replace the
disengaged workers.
A copy of the disengagement letter to the permanent workers signed
by the Managing Director of the company, Johan Jemdahi, and obtained by a
correspondent, reads;
“Please be informed that effective December 4, 2016, your
position has been declared redundant. We thank you for all your past
services to Ericsson. Further information about the redundancy benefits
will be communicated to you before the actual termination date.”
Speaking to a correspondent on condition of anonymity, said, “The
company said it was cheaper for the work to be done in India than in
Nigeria. The monitoring of those masts can be done from anywhere. We
monitor Abuja, Enugu, Asaba, and Port Harcourt sites from the Lagos
office. What they are now proposing is that instead of monitoring from
Lagos, they want to monitor from India.
“They have taken the Airtel NOC office to India. They brought
about 30 Indians to Nigeria last year to come and understudy the MTN
network and after a month, they went back and started monitoring from
there. There are no plans to pay compensation to the outsourced workers
in the company.”
The Public Relations Manager, Sub-Saharan Africa, Ericsson, Toju
Egbebi, who confirmed the development, said the move was part of the
company’s global cost and efficiency programme to achieve a net annual
cost savings of Swedish Krona 9bn, adding that the programme would
continue till 2017.
According to her, the redundancy is being carried out across 180
countries where the company operates. She explained that on July 19, the
company announced actions to further save costs as well as intensify
reductions in cost of sales activities and adapt its operations to a
weaker mobile broadband market.
Egbebi added, “This means employees will be affected. The
decision to offshore our service is in keeping with our global delivery
strategy; certain work may be centralised into global delivery centres.
This is to enable improved network availability and quality for
consumers, and cost efficient network operations for operators.”
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