- Call for Gov’t’s urgent intervention
- Labour Law Must Prevail – Wabba
Association of Licensed Telecom Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) on Monday described the picketing of MTN office in Lagos and other states by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) as “unfortunate” and “unjust” stating that the action was “reckless” and “disruptive” on essential qualitative service delivery to Nigerian subscribers and digital economy
ALTON, the umbrella body for mobile telecommunication operators and Value Added Service (VAS) providers in the country, stated further that the implication of the disruption will lead to severe poor quality of services with attendant national security implications and far reaching on other services that are dependent on the telecommunications industry.
Its Chairman, Engr Gbenga Adebayo, in a signed statement made available to the media, described MTN Nigeria as a corporate firm with credibility on labour and human right related matters.
Hence, it called on Federal government intervention on the matter without delay in a statement highlighted in (10) points and titled; Picketing of a Member ALTON.
- News of the picketing of the offices and disruption of operations of one of our members has been brought to our attention.
- ALTON is very concerned about this unfortunate development.
- Members of ALTON are law-abiding organizations who are committed to best practices in all areas including labour related matters. As responsible corporate citizens, our members have always provided platforms for their employees to associate freely in accordance with the law and the constitution.
- Employees of our members are able to join or form associations and unions if they so desire.
- However, the practice is that membership of any associations and unions are voluntary. In line with fundamental human rights regarding freedom of association as guaranteed by the constitution, individuals must not be compelled to join an association or union if they do not choose to do so.
- Picketing of such nature as reported, leading to injury to persons and damage to properties, creates an unfortunate situation where employees are coerced to join unions and associations without respect for their individual rights of voluntary association.
- Damage to any Telecom Facilities will lead to the disruption of critical national security and economic services which will expose innocent citizens to great danger.
- Attempts have been made to disrupt the network operations of some of our members through the shut down and vandalisation of critical network facilities.
The implication of such disruption will lead to severe poor quality of services with attendant national security implications and far reaching implications on other services that are dependent on the telecommunications industry.
- We hereby strongly request government and its law enforcement agencies to intervene expeditiously; otherwise we will advise our members to consider preventive shut down in order to avoid further damage to network facilities.
- We trust parties will respect each other’s constitutional rights in the interest of our nation Nigeria.
Signed
Engr. Gbenga Adebayo Chairman Association of Licensed Telecom Operators of Nigeria Lagos, Monday 9th July 2018.
Meanwhile, Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) said it picketed MTN Nigeria offices across major states in the country over alleged unfair labour practices.
“In MTN, all the workers are casual; they have no right to social protection, they are not allowed to freely bargain for a better work condition.
“A worker is sacked after working for three to four months. The worker is asked to re-apply. This is unfair, and we will not continue to allow it,’’ said, NLC President, .Ayuba Wabba.
