Nigerian Subscribers may encounter difficulties with network services as the Private Telecommunications and Communications Senior Staff Association (PTECSSAN) has commenced a seven-day strike over what it described as ‘precarious working conditions’.
This could result in a potential shutdown in the telecommunication industry and by extension a great threat to the country’s crumbling economy
In a statement made available by the PTECSSAN, the strike, which began on Monday, September 9, 2024, will not be suspended until its demands are attended to.
The ongoing peaceful demonstration may also affect the operations of telcos since it involves skilled workers including maintenance engineers, transmission engineers, customer service engineers, fibre optics engineers, riggers, and other key staff in the telecoms sector.
The Statement reads “The strike action has become inevitable because of the prevalent precarious working conditions our members are enduring in the sector, the refusal of the employers to recognise and respect the constitutional right of these workers to freely associate with the union and the unjust sack of 3 members of the union,”
The union’s secretary-general, Okonu Abdullahi, emphasized on the importance of the association workers, which he said play a substantial role in maintaining essential infrastructure, including base stations for companies like IHS and Huawei.
The statement further said the ongoing industrial action by the association will not be suspended until their demands are met.
“We shall not be suspending the planned indefinite strike action until our demands, which are as follows, are met: immediate reinstatement of the three unjustly sacked workers; Sotola Sunday Kolawole, Ulu Ikechukwu Christopher and Alex Franklin C.
“Immediate recognition of the fundamental right of the employees to freely associate with the union, recognition of the union as negotiating body for the employees on workers welfare.
“Remittance of membership dues into the union’s account as earlier provided, recognition of the years of service of these workers, commencement of appropriate pensions deduction and remittance of same as required by the Pension Act.
“Approval of the national health insurance scheme that covers the employees, their spouses, and four of their dependents; enrolment of union members in the Group Life Insurance as stipulated in the Pension Reform Act 2004, Section 9(3).
“Immediate implementation of leave and leave allowance by the international best practices, negotiation on review of salaries of the workers to meet the economic reality in the country today.
“Immediate provision [of] operational vehicles or in the alternative immediate negotiation on review of the self-drive/self-rental to meet the economic reality in the country today and stoppage of 24-hour job and introduction of work hours in accordance to the international best practices.”
The association further outlined other demands to include an end to work overload (combining additional passive tasks with existing duties) and adherence to occupational health and safety standards in line with global best practices.
It added; “We hope that these companies will utilise the 7-day window of this notice to meet our demands and avert the indefinite strike action,”
“The following are the culpable companies: Huawei Technologies Nigeria Limited, Tylium Nigeria Limited, Specific Tool & Techniques, CPNL, CITCC, Jus Partners Cosmopolitan Ltd, WTES Projects Ltd, Treblem Engineering Service, Prec Pearl Ltd.“Telesuprecon Ltd, Allstream Energy, Safari Group Ltd, Optical Networks Infrastructure Ltd, TOPVEG, TNL Networks, IT Support, Force-Com Integrated Technology, DMCL, Reime, Multisquare Technology, Maxychi Global Communications Limited, BJ Bison.“Winmax Ltd, Waase, Uppercrest Ltd, Timeless, Telenoetica, Suharim Investment, Phase, OneData, Nanocom, Monola Ltd, Introspect Ltd, Galaxy, FiberOne Broadband, Edge Infra, Cedarview Communications and Bitmap Technologies.”
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Abdullahi further said the impending outcome of the strike will be massive because members have been told “not to respond to any service outage from our employers”.
“The fact remains that there are outages every day, and if our engineers do not respond to those outages, subscribers in those areas will be affected,” he said.
