Telecoms workers to begin three-day warning strike June 16

The Private Telecommunications and Communications Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PTECSSAN) says it will embark on a three-day warning strike from June 16 to protest “precarious working conditions and gross disregard for laws by employers.”

The notice of strike was signed by Opeyemi Tomori, PTECSSAN president and Okonu Abdullahi, the general secretary.

They said the decision to embark on the industrial action was reached during the association’s national executive council meeting on Tuesday.

“This strike has become inevitable because of growing precarious working conditions in the sector and gross disregard for our laws and its institutions,” the statement reads.

“This is the 21st Century; workers in the sector are still being treated like slaves even though slavery has long been abolished all over the world.

“We have made series of efforts in the past, including but not limited to escalating the issues to the Honourable Minister of Labour and Employment, the Honourable Minister of Communications and Digital Economy and the House Committee on Communications, yet, these employers believe they are bigger than the nation and would not respect our institutions.”

Some of the issues raised by the association include anti-labour practices, increasing spate of precarious work, working for 24 hours, disregard for occupational health and safety, lack of hazard allowance and poor remuneration.

PTECSSAN demanded that HUAWEI Technologies Nigeria Limited, ATC, 9mobile, Globacom, Smile, IHS, Airtel, IPNX Nigeria, Spectranet, MAINONE, Ntel, Swift and other companies that have not allowed their employees to belong to labour unions should respect the right of the workers to freely associate with the union.

Additional demands of the association are the immediate regularisation of employment of all the casual workers in the sector, a stop to continued abuse of expatriate quota policy in the sector, provision of PPE equipment for field engineers and ensuring occupational health and safety measures are put in place for the generality of workers in the sector, among others.

The association said that agreement to its demands would determine if it would go ahead with the warning strike.