Victor Ahiuma-Young
5 May 2008
Lagos — There are strong indications that a fresh industrial action is looming in the nation's struggling national carrier, Nigerian Telecommunication (NITEL) Plc and its mobile subsidiary, M-TEL, two weeks after the end of over one week of a devastating strike by the staff of the company to demand for the payment of their five months un paid salary amongst other things.
This time around, the workers are alleging that the management of the embattled NITLE\ M-TEL, the parent company, Transnational Corporation (Transcorp) Plc, has reneged on the agreement reached on April 21, 2008, that the salaries and allowances of the junior staff be paid on or before April 30, 2008.
Investigation by Vanguard revealed that by the close of work on Friday, May 2, 2008, the junior workers have not been paid. Many of the junior workers are already very restive and pushing on their leaders to resume the suspended strike, saying it appears strike is the only thing the Management of NITEL understands. Confirming the restiveness of the staff, acting President of the National Union of Postal and Telecommunication Employees (NUPTE), the union which most of the junior workers belong to, Comrade Julius Abure, told Vanguard they could not understand why the management of NITEL would not honour the agreement it freely entred into with the workers.
According to him, "you are aware that according to agreement, the management was supposed to pay the junior workers on or before April 30, 2008. Today is May 2, and nothing has happened. "The workers are already agitated and very restive. But we have been calming them down and telling them that we should give the management a benefit of doubt and see what will happen. I can tell you that we would meet on Monday (today) to decide the next line of action." Until the April 21 agreement that necessitated the suspension of the industrial action, the workers had vowed to continue their industrial action until the management of the parent company, Transcorp, pays them their five months salary arrears and other allowances.
But while the industrial action lasted, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Nigeria's telecommunications regulatory agency, alerted the nation on what it calls the "grave implication" to the country's security and economy over the protracted crisis Nigeria's premier carrier. In a statement in Abuja by NCC's head of public affairs, Mr. Dave Imoko, and made available to Vanguard by e-mail night, the commission noted that it is "concerned about the effects of the recent strike embarked on by workers of NITEL which has caused the shut down of the company's network."
Measuring the economic and security implication of the strike, the NCC stated that NITEL provided major landline services to many government agencies and major corporate organisations in the country. "Also, through the SAT-3 Cable infrastructure, NITEL provides a major international link from Nigeria to the outside world. "As a consequence of the workers' strike, subscribers who rely on NITEL's fixed lines would invariably resort to patronising other service providers, thus increasing the congestion on those networks."
SAT-3 is Nigeria's major international gateway cable infrastructure managed by NITEL and disruption to this service as a result of the strike posses grave consequence to both subscribers and the various military formations and other security agencies. SAT-3 cable infrastructure not only links Nigeria, but much of sub-Sahara Africa to Europe and the Americas According to the NCC, "the disruption in the SAT-3 Cable infrastructure would result in many subscribers from various networks in the country making several unsuccessful attempts to reach international destinations. These have the combined effect of adding to the frustrations of subscribers as well as promoting network congestion."
NITEL workers had gone on strike following what the workers unions call "unfavourable" working environment, accusing the core investors, Messrs Transcorp plc of non-payment of staff salaries. The unions also accuse Transcorp management of asset stripping since taking over the former telecom monopoly.
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