Ericsson Sacks 160 Nigerian Workers, Takes Jobs To India

Ericsson Nigeria, the local subsidiary of the global telecoms solutions provider, has disengaged about 160 permanent and outsourced workers in its Network Operating Centre, investigations have shown.

It was gathered that the disengagement, which takes effect on Sunday, December 4, 2016, affected 55 full-time employees of the company.
According to sources in the company, some workers were laid off in July when the offshoring (the practice of a company in one country arranging for people in another country to do work for it) of jobs from Nigeria to India began.

Findings show that foreign workers had been recruited to replace the disengaged workers, and knowledge transfer by Nigerian engineers to the new workers was ongoing in the company’s office in India.

Sources revealed that the knowledge transfer had been going on since last year when some Indians were brought into the country to study the management of telecommunications infrastructure in the country.

A copy of the disengagement letter to the permanent workers signed by the Managing Director of the company, Johan Jemdahi, and obtained by Punch, 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.”

Findings showed that in the last two and half years, Ericsson Nigeria had managed the MTN network majorly from its pool of local workers, some of who were former MTN employees, as well as other contracted workers.

One of the affected workers said that the company was offering the jobs, which involved the monitoring of MTN masts and networks in the country, to Indians at reduced costs.

The workers expressed fears that this would be a continuous trend in the telecommunications industry in Nigeria if it was not addressed by the government.