Telecom systems to shutdown as telecom workers declare strike

The telecom industry is set to go on an indefinite statewide strike starting on Monday, September 5, 2022, which will result in a shutdown of Ghana’s communications infrastructure.

The Telecom and IT Professionals Union (TIP) executive called for the strike, which is intended to press home demands for a number of service conditions. TIP’s members are primarily outsourced engineers, technicians, IT professionals, and other allied workers managing the technical operations of the three major telecom companies, MTN, Vodafone, and Airtel Tigo.

In a statement released on Thursday in Accra and signed by TIP General Secretary Israel Edem Agbegbor, the telecom employees threatened to stop working until their bosses complied with three crucial “non negotiable demands.”

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In a notice of strike dated August 25, 2022, the union allegedly duly informed the National Labor Commission and their four subcontract employers, Reliance Personnel Services Limited, Reime Ghana Limited, MP Infrastructure Ghana Limited, and Linfra Ghana Limited.

The union is calling for the “immediate recall of all targeted TIP members whose contracts had not been renewed by these firms by simple membership with the union and other Union officials who are part of the current Joint standing negotiation committee and sub committee negotiating the 2022 Collective Agreement and salary increment.”

The “immediate payment of Golden Handshake to all our members whose contracts with Reliance have ended and have not been renewed” is also demanded.

Furthermore, the union is requesting that “after over six weeks of declaring a standstill, joint signature and submission of a letter to NLC submitting the salary negotiation and pending items in the 2022 Collective Agreement to obligatory or voluntary arbitration.”

According to the statement, the union was compelled to take these actions as a result of an increase in member victimization occurrences and the employers’ lack of cooperation and commitment to meeting their unmet requests.

The statement continued, “And because all efforts to obtain these employers’ cooperation have failed, we consider it is time for action until the following non-negotiable criteria are met.”

According to the union, the action was taken in retaliation for their employers’ decision not to extend the contracts of more than 100 targeted members and executives at TIP’s national, regional, and branch levels.

These include the members of the current Joint Standing Negotiation Committee or Sub-Committee that is attempting to reach an agreement with the employers on the 2022 CA and wage increase.

The Union claims that from July 2022, the four employers that served as Huawei Technologies’ subcontractors and employment agencies on the managed service operations of MTN, Vodafone, and Airtel Tigo have refused to sign an unified document referring impasses to arbitration.

Despite the fact that the union had complained to the Labour Commission about the employers’ unfair labor practices, persecution of union members, and lack of cooperation in resolving remaining concerns, it claimed that no action had been taken against the employers.

The statement emphasized that it was “clearly left to us to take the appropriate action to deal with these unfair labor practices and conduct that threatens the very future of the Union.”