Nigerian telecom engineers accuse Huawei of labour violations

Nigerian telecom engineers accuse Huawei of violating labour laws, protesting poor welfare, stagnant salaries, and work overload.

[dropcap]N[/dropcap]igerian telecom engineers have accused telecommunications giant Huawei of exploiting them through poor work conditions and violating labour laws.

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In a peaceful social media protest, engineers voiced their frustrations, displaying placards with captions such as “MTN/Airtel, stop using Huawei to enslave us” and “No pension scheme, poor HMO, no to work threat.”

The protest highlighted several key grievances, including stagnant salaries, lack of operational tools like vehicles and laptops, no pension scheme, and being forced to work 24 hours a day, seven days a week without annual leave.

One placard read, “Huawei why? 24hrs/day work for less than $100 salary,” summarising their frustrations over meagre pay.

Engineers also accused Huawei of neglecting their welfare by failing to provide adequate healthcare, operational resources, and personal protective equipment (PPE).

The complaints also extended to a lack of risk allowances for riggers and inadequate provisions for operational data and phone call credits.

Despite efforts to reach Huawei and the affected telecom firms, such as MTN and Airtel, for their response, no official statement has been made.

The engineers have called on Nigeria’s Ministry of Labour to investigate Huawei’s operations and ensure that the rights of Nigerian workers are protected and enforced.

Nigerian telecom engineers accuse Huawei of labour violations pic.twitter.com/Bbpq2SMCsG

— Otunba Victor (@freelanews) September 12, 2024