Nigeria’s telecommunications sector faces a potential shutdown as workers under the Private Telecommunications and Communications Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PTECSSAN) have started a nationwide strike.
The strike, which began on Monday, could disrupt telecom services across the country, affecting millions of subscribers.
The Secretary-General of PTECSSAN, Okonu Abdullahi, announced the commencement of the strike in a statement on Monday. He emphasized that the strike is necessary due to ongoing issues faced by workers in the sector. The union represents over 800 employees working in various telecommunications companies, including major firms like IHS and Huawei.
According to Abdullahi, the union is demanding the reinstatement of dismissed workers, formal recognition of the union by employers, improved working conditions, and the proper remittance of union dues. He highlighted that poor working conditions and the refusal of some companies to acknowledge the union are key reasons for the strike.
“The strike has become inevitable because of the prevalent precarious working conditions our members are enduring in the sector, the refusal of the employers to recognize and respect the constitutional right of these workers to freely associate with the union, and the unjust sack of three members of the union,” he stated in the seven-day strike notice.
“The implications of the strike will be massive because we have told all our members 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.
However, Gbenga Adebayo, Chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecom Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), responded by stating that the striking group is not affiliated with ALTON, which includes major telecom operators such as MTN, Globacom, Airtel, and 9mobile.
“This group is not known to us in ALTON, and the companies mentioned are not members of ALTON,” Adebayo stated.
