Confusion trails demands to unionise call center agents

The rising spate of casualisation of Nigerians in telecommunications sector, especially at the call centers, have reached a confusion state for both the network operators and even their Nigerian employees, hence the demand for the revisiting of Labour law as soon as possible, writes REMMY NWEKE.

THE recent increasing demands by Nigerians for the unionization of the employees of call-centers within the nation’s telecommunications may have led to confusion among operators in the sector.

ITRealms Online recalls towards the last quarter of the 2011, the purported demand by some 3,000 call center agents at Airtel Nigeria located in the federal capital territory, Abuja led to the suspension of services by the duo of Tech Mahindra and Spanco.

And in less than eight months, a similar fate faced MTN Nigeria whose Jos call center is being managed by the management of CNSSL Limited, with both clamouring for the same demand; unionization of its employees.

Omobola J@NIMA2011Noteworthy is that usually the company handling the call-centre outsource claims that the actual client, which in this case are mobile telecommunications operators has not business with the agitating staff, most people including members or leadership of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) see these agents as the employees of the telecom operators, thus they see reason to intervene.

Take for instance, during the wake of purported demand by the employees of Tech Mahindra and Spanco who handles the customer care outsourcing of Airtel Nigeria, they undoubtedly exonerated the mobile operator from any wrong doing including what led to the suspension of its call centres in Abuja, and culminated in the relieving of some 3,000 call center agents.

Although the two operators of call centers for Airtel Nigeria, noted that as operators of global Business Process Outsourcing (BPOs), operating out of two call centres in Lagos and Abuja respectively, their attention were drawn to several messages circulating on the internet alleging that their client, Airtel had fired 3,000 call centre agents due to a disagreement over a purported plan to reduce salaries.

In a joint press statement made available to ITRealms Online then, the duo insisted that it untrue that Airtel sacked some of its staff, hence the choose to put the facts right, arguing that in 2009, following the signing of a landmark BPO agreement with the Airtel Group, they had jointly inherited over 1,200 Call Centre agents from Bezaleel, HR Indexx and CNSSL who hitherto provided agents for the company known then as Zain.

They explained that the contract existing between them and two of the agencies namely CNSSL and HR Indexx expired effective Friday September 30, 2011, therefore, the third agency, Bezaleel’s, contract will expire in January 2012.

“So, there is no issue of mass sack but expiration of existing contracts,” they claimed, adding that prior to the expiration of the contracts; they had engaged representatives of the agents and that of the organized labour on how to manage their transition to the roll.

“Due to a lack of consensus on the way forward and an apparent threat to our facilities by some of the agents, we were compelled to suspend operations at the call centres last Friday, September 30, 2011,” they claimed, stressing that their plans include to expand the call centres nationwide, therefore they would also recruit new agents with about 5,000 employees.

“Going forward, our plan is to offer some of the affected agents a new contract with attendant salaries and benefits based on their qualifications and experience,” part of the joint statement read.

However, they insisted that on issues of salaries and as world class organizations, they offer employees remuneration and benefits comparable to standards across the world and in compliance with the working and labour laws of Nigeria.

“We, therefore, appeal to all Nigerians, especially Airtel customers, to bear with us as we seek to expeditiously resolve the issues and re-open the call centres in the coming days. Indeed, we have also taken appropriate measures to ensure that our client’s customers experience minimal inconvenience during this brief period,” the duo submitted.

Even as they warned that the activities of these disgruntled agents were capable of frustrating investors with good intentions and make nonsense of the Federal Government’s drive for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).

They reaffirmed their commitment to growing the BPO industry in Nigeria and give meaning to the quest by the Federal Government of Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan to create jobs as part of his master plan to re-engineer the Nigerian economy.

The resultant effect was that over five million subscribers of Airtel in Abuja and environs were shut out of the network whilst the imbroglio lasted as protesting members of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) invaded the telecoms firm’s showrooms across the country.

The protesters, who were agitating against casualization of workers, allegedly attacked the switch in Abuja which made it impossible for the subscribers to enjoy network access throughout the day.

Eventually, this attracted security agents who battled to contain the crisis and allow engineers to restore service. Even as Airtel promptly issued a statement denying employing casual staff while also reiterating that it had not sacked any of its employees.

For the management of Spanco and Tech Mahindra, the two companies running the centres on an outsourcing arrangement, even Airtel maintained it does not employ casual workers in any part of its organisation’s operations, but did outsource Call Centre services to Tech Mahindra and Spanco, two of the biggest and highly reputable Business Processes Outsourcing (BPO) organizations in the world with global footprint.

“We also seamlessly outsourced our Information Technology (IT) to IBM, while our networks services are outsourced to Ericsson, Huawei and Nokia Siemens Networks as part of an eco-system of global partners,” leadership of Airtel Nigeria had insisted.

Additionally, Airtel pointed out that while it does not interfere in the businesses of partners, it has advised them to manage the situation with utmost professionalism and with due regards to Nigerian Labour Laws and practices.

“We have also ensured that our partners, most importantly, have taken adequate measures to ensure our customers continue to get service support. … Airtel is a law abiding organization and has contributed immensely to Foreign Direct Investment in Nigeria and created numerous job opportunities for Nigerians directly and indirectly. We remain resolved in our commitment to provide our customers innovative and affordable telecoms services backed by world-class customer care even as we engage the community with educationally relevant Corporate Socia; Responsibility (CSR) initiatives.”

This was soon to be followed by the hullaballoo that exhibited at the both houses of the National Assembly with summoning of Minister of Labour and the affected telecom operator.

But barely eight months after the dramatis by Nigerian legislators over the issue, another disruption soon occur, this time at the fragile city of Jos call centre where the management of the CNSSL was quick to refute the allegations making a round that employees of the affected Jos Call centre were 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 were 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, adding that the staffers in the call centres were 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, decrying that the action by the NLC penultimate 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 in the region.

“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 declared. Emphasising that CNSSL employees at the call centre, 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.

ITRealms Online further gathered that a breakdown of law and order was narrowly averted, as Adebayo assured CNSSL thereafter engaged 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.

Commenting recently the President of the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria, Mr. Titi Omo-Ettu in what he tagged “The Challenge of Bharti” pointed out that in actual sense, Bharti as it were then and now MTN Nigeria may not emphatically have issues, but the Nigerian state and its employment laws.

He argued that though Bharti Airtel had recently acquired hitherto Zain’s African assets for a staggering $10.7 billion, which made Bharti the world's fifth largest mobile phone company by subscribers’ base. And in the actual fact, Airtel planned from inception to inject $600m into the business formerly known as Zain Nigeria with a promise to reach all Nigerians with cheap phones.

Though he did not doubt Airtel’s capability, he was worried that the Nigerian Government may have deferred its responsibility to Bharti Airtel. Warning that Bharti which is reputed for its outsourcing model of managing business and as time goes on things may fall in-line or fall apart, stressing that the ability to keep Nigerians talking would depend largely on keeping them working, which ultimately lies in the bargaining power for every carrot that comes to the table.

What this means, to an extent is that although the government of Nigeria may have opened up its market service, especially in the telecommunications, but lacks the ability to manage or better still bargain for every carrot that comes to the table, such as the outsourcing model of call center agents of the partnering companies to the telecommunication operators.

The truth, therefore, is that by mere seeing those call center agents adorning the brand of their master clients, which in these cases are Airtel and MTN, one would be forced to conclude that they are employees of these network operators, therefore, may not be entirely untrue to say that they work for them.

Although, the onus lies with the Nigerian Labour laws, which to a great deal require revisiting by the appropriate organs of the government, mostly the legislators and goes beyond rhetoric statements on national televisions or before press men, but action. It’s definitely obvious that several Nigerians may be somehow desperate to get jobs, which was evident in the case of Spanco and Tech Mahindra versus the call centre agents, who were eventually relieved for fear of treats.

The affected outsourcing company did not wait for resolution of such a case before announcing another round of vacancies to no doubt replace those seen as treats to their businesses, which of course saw a long queue of unemployed Nigerians in the line-up, thus subsuming the need to thoroughly go through employment agreements before signing the dotted lines.

As clear as that may seem in business and investment, Nigerians, especially those in the position of power should not wait until it happens to their siblings before taking action, just like what happened recently with the case of yellow fever card hullaballoo, mainly because a Senator of the federal republic was affected, before taking relevant actions.

May the truth be told that if our labour laws are porous, let us be frank enough to update it through amendment before it becomes too late, which may eventually lead to the fears of already invested public becoming a reality, that is treat to not only local businesses but foreign direct investment.

The adage which says once beaten, twice shy does not only applies to the issue at stake centred on casualisation of Nigerians, but is here with us and must be tackled before it becomes too late.

As it is, working for any outsourcing partner, mostly within the telecom sector could be classified as most uncertain, which on the other hand leaves the investing public and network operators in confusion.ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D