Vodafone at loggerheads with African labour

Vodafone is at loggerheads with yet another labour movement in Africa. First it was in South Africa with COSATU and now the Trade Union Congress (TUC) in Ghana is up in arms over the telecom giant’s decision to lay off 950 employees.

Media reports from Accra say TUC has sharply criticized the layoffs saying the decision contradicts labour relations laws of the country.

Speaking on Peace FM’s Morning Show ‘Kokorokoo’ the General Secretary of the TUC, Mr Kofi Asamoah accused the company of using intimidation and coercion instead of established legal procedures.

He promised that TUC would do its best as the voice of Ghanaian workers to guarantee the well being of Vodafone workers. According to him, management of Vodafone disregarded the laid-down procedures for redundancy by not meeting with the union to discuss it before taking action.

In reaction to the TUC accusations, Chief Manager for corporate communications of Vodafone, Mr Isaac Abraham dismissed all the allegations and said the company had done nothing wrong.

Vodafone moved into Ghana last year amidst controversy after it acquired 70% of Ghana Telecom. In December 2008 Professor Akosah, Kossi Dede, Dr. Nii Moi Thompson, Naa Kordai Asiedu, Rodaline Imoru Ayarna and Kwame Jantua sued the government over the sale of Ghana telecom shares to Vodafone.
The six have asked the court to dissolve the enlarged Ghana Telecom, which was created by the sale; they also sought a court order to revalue the assets of the state-owned telecoms company.
In May this year, the British company clashed with South African labour group, COSATU when it increased its stake in Vodacom. COSATU dragged the matter to court a day before Vodacom’s listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange but lost the case and the company went on to list on JSE.

Vodafone Ghana announced that it would lay off 950 employees by November through a compulsory redundancy package.
According to the company, the move will pave way for it to commence a new organizational structure which will take off on December 1, 2009.
The lay off will affect all departments and could lead to the closure of non-core divisions. This is however different from the voluntary retirement packages offered to the workers under which they were given three months salary for each year served with the company.
The compulsory redundancy programme also offers three months basic salary.
Isaac Abraham, Chief Manager of Corporate Communications, told media that the exercise will be done in a fair and transparent manner, aligned to the terms which have already been negotiated in the Collective Bargaining Agreement and other senior staff terms and conditions of service for compulsory redundancy.
Last year, the company reported a loss of $176 million and it has confirmed that it urgently needs to turn the firm into a strong and successful business for the benefit of customers and employees.
“The business model must be sustainable in the long term, which is to deliver better service to customers through more efficient processes and significantly reduced complexity, and we have recently created jobs in the wider community through our Direct Sales Agents.
This means that we will continue to grow in areas where we need new skills.” Mr. Abraham further revealed.
Since Vodafone took over the management of Ghana Telecom (GT), after it acquired 70 percent stake in the national telecoms operator in November last year, it has offered two voluntary exit programmes; the second one was restricted to non-unionized employees at the request of the union.

Samuel Mungadze