Private Telecommunications and Communications Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PTECSSAN) on Monday issued a 14-day industrial action notice to Huawei Technology Nigeria Limited over alleged unfair labour practices.
The PTECSSAN, which is an affiliate of Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, gave the 14-day industrial action notice to the telco’s management at a media briefing in Lagos.
The association listed some of the unfair practices as including “intimidation, harassment and verbal assaults; poor and discriminatory remuneration; abuse of expatriates quota policy; increasing spate of precarious work; breach of freedom of association and right to organize; and going against International Labour Organisation, ILO, convention on leave days and leave allowance.
It also accused the telecom operator of 24 work hours; restrictive career path; disregard for occupational health and safety of employees, and no exit package structure even for long term staff.”
The association’s General Secretary, Okonu Adeniyi, recalled that the workers’ efforts in the past to address all the labour-related issues confronting the workers in the company were rebuffed by the management.
He said: “Ultimate of which is gross disregard and denial of the workers their fundamental Right to Freedom of Association as enshrined in Section 40 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as well as Section 12(4) of the Trade Unions Act of 2004 and ILO Conventions 87 and 98.”
Specifically, he explained that the workers now demanded “that the company respects the right of the workers irrespective of the category they fall under to freely join the Union; and immediate withdrawal of warning letters and threats issued to the leaders of the workers trying to organise them into the union.
The workers also demanded for immediate commencement of discussion and negotiation of Procedural Agreement and Collective Bargaining Agreement with the union for the workers; immediate regularisation of employment of all the casual workers in the company ; and a stop to continued abuse of expatriates’ quota policy in the company.
Adeniyi clarified: “For the umpteenth time, we reiterate that if our demands are not fully and appropriately complied with by Huawei Technologies Nigeria Limited on or before Friday 12th March, 2021 we shall withdraw every guarantee of industrial peace within the company.
“Sadly, services may be disrupted across the nation throughout all networks that Huawei is associated with from midnight of Friday, 12th March, 2021”, the PTECSSAN scribe warned.
