[Mhiz Rebecca]

Telecommunications giant, MTN Nigeria, has hit hard
at its workforce, knocking off several long-serving
members of staff.
South African telecoms firm, MTN, on Friday, sacked
280 of its employees in Nigeria, in a major job cut that
affected about 15% of the company’s entire Nigerian
workforce.
According to Premium Times, those affected by the
move include some 200 permanent employees and
about 80 contract staff across various cadres, ranging
from new graduates to senior managers, multiple
sources revealed.
Many of those sacked spent up to 15 years with the
company having joined MTN as it opened its business
in Nigeria in 2001.
Sources said affected workers were given a dismal
severance of 75% of their gross monthly income
multiplied by the number of years with the company.
“Given that the company is about 16 years old in
Nigeria, the severance package brought pain and
discontent among the affected staff,” one source said.
“With the payoff structure, senior managers with 15
years of service were left with about N15 million. Most
of the staff got less than N5 million.”
MTN Nigeria recorded nearly $1 billion in profit in 2016.
However, the telecoms firm was heavily fined by the
Nigerian government for failing to disconnect 5.2
million unregistered subscribers.
The spokesperson for the company, Funso Aina, could
not be reached for comments on Monday.
But a source familiar with the latest downsizing said
200 of those affected had earlier agreed to leave the
company voluntarily.
The source said the sackings were as a result of “the
changing dynamics of the telecoms industry in recent
times”.
The source said the company introduced the voluntary
severance scheme, VSS, to provide a window for one
week in April, for persons who have served in MTN for
five years and above to take up.
Those who decided to leave under the VSS were to be
paid the equivalent of their three weeks gross salary
for every year they worked with MTN.
“What it means is that if one worked in MTN for five
years, one would be paid three weeks of their gross
salaries times five,” the source said.
Eventually, all 280 staff were disengaged under the
VSS and paid their benefits, the source said.