Frustration as 160 Nigerians sacked by Ericsson; Indians take over

– Some Nigerians have been asked to vacate their position in Ericsson Nigeria

– There are reports that the jobs will be taken over by Indians

– The company said it was a move carried out in 180 countries it operated

Ericsson Nigeria has relieved 160 Nigerians of their duties in the company while replacing them with Indians.

An investigation by The Punch reveals that 55 full-time employees were affected by the recent development which is expected to take effect from Sunday, November 4.

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Some workers were laid off in July while foreign workers had been recruited to replace the disengaged workers. Also, knowledge transfer by Nigerian engineers to the new workers was ongoing in the company’s office in India.

Sources revealed that some Indians were brought to Nigeria in 2015 to study the telecommunication management so as to be able to run it when the Nigerians have been disengaged.

Johan Jemdahi who is the managing director of the company signed a letter which reads: “Please be informed that effective December 4, 2016, your position has been declared redundant. We thank you for all your past services to Ericsson. Further information about the redundancy benefits will be communicated to you before the actual termination date.”

One of the affected workers who spoke on the condition of anonymity said the company was involved in monitoring masts and that the job could be done anywhere.

He said: “The company said it was cheaper for the work to be done in India than in Nigeria. The monitoring of those masts can be done from anywhere. We monitor Abuja, Enugu, Asaba, and Port Harcourt sites from the Lagos office. What they are now proposing is that instead of monitoring from Lagos, they want to monitor from India.

“They have taken the Airtel NOC office to India. They brought about 30 Indians to Nigeria last year to come and understudy the MTN network and after a month, they went back and started monitoring from there. There are no plans to pay compensation to the outsourced workers in the company.”

Toju Egbebi who is the public relations manager, Sub-Saharan Africa of Ericsson confirmed the mass sack and said the company was carrying it out in 180 countries where the company operated.

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She said the company announced actions to further save costs as well as intensify reductions in cost of sales activities.

Egbebi said: “This means employees will be affected. The decision to offshore our service is in keeping with our global delivery strategy; certain work may be centralised into global delivery centres. This is to enable improved network availability and quality for consumers, and cost efficient network operations for operators.”

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