CNSSL says Jos call centre staff are not MTNers

Gbenga Adebayo, CEO CNSSL

The management of the CNSSL has refuted the allegations making a round that employees at the Jos Call centre are the employees of MTN Nigeria.

According to the chief executive officer of CNSSL Contact Centre Limited, Mr. Gbenga Adebayo, in a press statement made available to ITRealms Online, on Wednesday 14th March 2010, the MTN Call Centre in Rayfield, Jos, Plateau State, was besieged by a crowd purported to be officials of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).

He alleged that their stated mission was to protest the conditions of service of the staff in the centre and the alleged resistance to unionization of staff.

But in furtherance of their objectives, the NLC came with placards and effectively barricaded the building and prevented staff from entering their offices.

He insisted that the call centre staffers are not MTNers but CNSSL employees.

“It is pertinent to note that the MTN Call Centre in Jos is operated by CNSSL, a Nigerian company under an outsourcing arrangement with MTN,” he explained.

The staff in the call centre, Mr. Adebayo was quoted as saying, are therefore not employed by MTN.

CNSSL, as said by him, provides skilled employment for Nigerians under terms that far exceed the national minimum wage requirements and comparable with prevailing conditions for graduate employees in many areas of the private sector.

“Our vision is to increase our capacity to do so,” he said.

Adebayo lamented that the action by the NLC Wednesday morning disrupted the activities of the call centre and jeopardized the ability of CNSSL employees to attend to the teeming MTN customers under its care.

“Such incidents not only undermines our ability to fullfill our contractual obligations to MTN, it is a disincentive to investors who wish to provide employment opportunities for the youth in the Jos area which is experiencing great social upheaval,” he said.

CNSSL employees at the call centre, he said, have no known issue with their employment conditions; hence, they were reported to have robustly resisted the barricade erected by the NLC in an attempt to enter their place of work.

“A breakdown of law and order was narrowly averted,” he declared, stressing that they at CNSSL are currently engaging the leadership of NLC and the relevant security agencies in order to avoid a re-occurrence of the unfortunate and unwarranted action that took place today.

Remmy Nweke

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