Telecommunication giant MTN is facing the prospect of renewed industrial action at its headquarters in South Africa that may affect operations elsewhere, including Nigeria, which is one of its key markets.

A report this morning said that South Africa’s Communication Workers Union (CWU) is concerned about the company’s decision to implement a new operating model before giving temporary employees permanent status, as had been agreed in 2015.

MTN said it was outsourcing some of its call centres to a third party and planned to complete the process in September.

“But the union’s general secretary, Aubrey Tshabalala, said the process could not continue until the employees were made permanent and their conversion should be backdated to August 2015, when the agreement was reached,” reports BusinessDay of South Africa.

“He said this would put the employees in a strong position when being outsourced to a third party as their salaries and benefits would have improved.

“The union and MTN are expected to meet next week. The outsourcing will affect 980 employees, including 482 casual workers, said Tshabalala.”

The report quotes Ike Dube, MTN SA’s head of business risk, as saying that the agreement that was reached did not apply to employees that were not employed by MTN.

Moreover, the deal further states that if there are temporary employees employed by MTN who qualify for permanent employment in terms of the Labour Relations Act, MTN will abide by the rules, the report quotes Dube as saying.

He is further quoted as saying that MTN and the union had discussions about the company’s plans. While the parties had “differences regarding the proposed model” the union was “fully appraised of the strategy,” Dube reportedly said.

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