Union gives Huawei 14-day ultimatum over workers rights tussle

Union gives Huawei 14-day ultimatum over workers rights tussle

The Private Telecommunications and Communications Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PTECSSAN) an affiliate of the Nigeria Labour Congress, (NLC) has issued a 14-day ultimatum to Huawei Technologies Nigeria Limited over what it described as disregard and denial of the workers fundamental right to freedom of association as enshrined in section 40 of the 1999 constitution.

The General Secretary, PTECSSAN, Comrade Okonu Abdullahi, disclosed this in a statement that all efforts in the past to address all the labour related issues confronting the workers in the company have been rebuffed by its management.

“All our efforts in the past to address all the labour related issues confronting the workers in the company have been rebuffed by its management. Ultimate of which is gross disregard and denial of the workers their fundamental Right to Freedom of Association as enshrined in Section 40 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as well as Section 12(4) of the Trade Unions Act LFN 2004 and International Labour Organisation Conventions 87 and 98,” he stated.

He further explained that there would be consequences to industrial peace within the company if the demands of the union are not met within 14 days.

He lamented that it has become the culture of the company to make workers perform their duties under duress, adding that workers are intimidated, harassed, “and even threatened with sack at every slight opportunity. The use of foul languages on the workers is also prevalent in the organisation.”

According to him, “We demand that the company respect the right of the workers irrespective of the category they fall under to freely join the Union. We call for the immediate withdrawal of warning letters and threats issued to the leaders of the workers trying to organize them into the Union. We request for the immediate commencement of discussion and negotiation of procedural agreement and collective bargaining agreement with the Union for the workers.

“We mandate the immediate regularization of employment of all the casual workers in the company. We demand a stop to continued abuse of expatriates’ quota policy in the company.

“We call for the immediate provision of PPE for the field engineers and ensuring occupational health and safety measures are put in place for the generality of workers in the company. We demand that Huawei Technologies Nigeria Limited immediately remedies all the employee relations issues we raised above.

“Huawei continues to undermine and sabotage Nigeria’s economy through its industrial relations practices which is designed to fully emasculate workers, make a nonsense of the local content policy of the federal government and ultimately exploit the nation without appropriate investment especially in human capacity and internalization of technologies for the benefit of our nation’s economy.

“As a responsible Trade Union in the telecommunications and communication sector in Nigeria we shall ensure protection of the interests of all workers within the sector, hence, we are dedicated to ensuring that Huawei Technologies treats its workers fairly and within global best practices. All steps, no matter how painstaking they may be, shall be taken to compel the company to comply to all our demands.”