Vodafone To Sack 1,300 Workers

UK telecommunication giants, Vodafone, which controversially took over Ghana Telecom, yesterday, took another shocking decision at an emergency meeting with regional managers of the company in Kumasi, the Ashanti Regional capital, to sack about 1,300 Ghanaian workers of the company, after it has failed to improve its services to the people.

The move will be a big blow to government’s efforts at reducing unemployment. It also comes on the heels of government announcing that it had created about 1.6 million jobs in the country.

The meeting was held at the premises of the company's main office in Kumasi and attended by all the regional managers and some top management of the company from Accra.

The decision will be implemented secretly, according to The Enquirer sources, which say the targeted workers would first be given an option of a voluntary retirement, but this is likely not to yield any positive result and that those who prove stubborn will have to be fired to enable the company meets its target. Vodafone, our sources said, would want to work with only 1,000 Ghanaian workers which will be further cut down in subsequent retrenchment exercises. The Enquirer sources complained that the top management of the company was taking Ghanaian workers for granted.

Since taking over the Ghana Telecommunication Company three years ago, Vodafone had sacked about 2,300 Ghanaian workers who are now unemployed.

Notwithstanding, the company has already taken another decision to sack about 1,300 workers by next month for reasons known to top management alone.

The Enquirer sources said, “Vodafone brought nothing new into the company; the salary we received now was determined by the defunct Ghana Telecom, the general working conditions have worsened since Vodafone took over GT.”

“We were shocked when we were informed that the company is retiring another 1,300 Ghanaian workers, this is wicked and something must be done about it,” a source said.

The sources indicated that what is more shocking about this decision is that the managers were not given any explanation by the management of Vodafone, who insisted that reducing the staff numbers would save the company from an embarrassment it is about to face in the telecommunication sector.

Since taking over GT, Vodafone had not been able to improve the existing GT service or added values to the services, but rather reducing their customer base drastically.

Efforts to contact the Northern Regional public relations officer of Vodafone for his comment failed, but sources said the managers were warned not to disclose or leak the information to the press because the action is intended to be secret.

Vodafone currently holds 70% shares of GT, while the government of Ghana has only 30%, making Vodafone UK owners of GT.

Before Vodafone took over GT, it was having 4,000 Ghanaian workers. In 2008 and 2009, about 2,300 staff workers were sacked.

Though a section of Ghanaians protested against the sale of GT to Vodafone, the previous NPP government gave away the national asset for just a penny.