Telecommunications giants, MTN has sacked 280 of its employees in Nigeria and were were given a severance of 75% of their gross monthly income multiplied by the number of years with the company.
Staff affected include some 200 permanent employees and about 80 contract staff across various cadres, ranging from new graduates to senior managers .
Many had 15 years with the company having joined MT N after it opened office in Nigeria in 2001.
“Given that the company is about 16 years old in Nigeria, the severance package brought pain and discontent among the affected staff,” a source told Premium Times.
“With the payoff structure, senior managers with 15 years of service were left with about N15 million. Most of the staff got less than N5 million.”
The source said the company introduced the voluntary severance scheme, VSS, to provide a window for one week in April, for persons who have served in MTN for five years and above to take up.
Th e 280 who decided to leave under the VSS were to be paid the equivalent of their three weeks gross salary for every year they worked with MTN.
“What it means is that if one worked in MTN for five years, one would be paid three weeks of their gross salaries times five,” the source added.