SAN FRANCISCO, May 01, (THEWILL) – Telecommunication firm, MTN Nigeria, has reportedly sacked 280 of its workers in a major job cut that is targeting at least 25 per cent of its 1,800 workers in the country.
According to reports gathered from sources in the firm, some 200 permanent employees and about 80 contract staffers across various cadres, ranging from new graduates to senior managers, were affected in a move.
It was gathered that many of those sacked spent up to 15 years with the company having joined MTN as it opened its business in Nigeria in 2001 as the affected workers were given a dismal severance of 75 per cent 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. With the payoff structure, senior managers with 15 years of service were left with about N15 million but 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 company had 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.
Eventually, all 280 staff were disengaged under the VSS and paid their benefits, the source said.
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