As workers of Vodafone Ghana are ticking their wounds over the recently announced compulsory redundancy programme targeted at 950 workers, there is growing discontent among some key top personnel over the conduct of a Zambian expatriate worker of the company. The Zambian, Mr Amon Jere, is alleged to have castigated workers of the company, saying “Sack all the Ghanaians because they are lazy.” A source within the management of Vodafone Ghana, told The Enquirer that hell nearly broke loose last Wednesday, when some of the workers heard of the comment purported to have emanated from the Zambian. The source, who, for the fear of victimization, pleaded anonymity, told The Enquirer it took tact and diplomacy by some management members to clam the tempers of the worker down, otherwise they were going charge on Mr Jere. The Zambian, 34, was employed by Vodafone Ghana to lead the Marketing, Sales and Distribution department. According to the source, Mr Jere has the penchant for using swear words on the Ghanaian workers of Vodafone. The source told The Enquirer that there have been several complaints to the top brass of Vodafone concerning Mr Jere’s persistent use of derogatory words. “This Zambian, who landed in the country some few months before the launch of Vodafone brand in Ghana, has one of the best conditions in the company,” the source said. Mr Jere, who currently resides at the plush Vilagio apartment, the source said, is paid a figure close to $30,000 every month. “In addition to this juicy salary offer, the man earns one per cent of the sales his department makes every month and why won’t he insult Ghanaians because we are treated differently,” the source said. According to the source, Vodafone Ghana allegedly spends over $5,000 on the accommodation of Mr Jere alone. A senior union member also told the Enquirer that the behaviour Mr Jere shows how far the company has gotten to. “Some of the expatriates see the Ghanaian workers as ‘nothing’ better and that is because of the conditions they enjoy. “Intimidation, harassment and the use of abusive language against the Ghanaian workers is the order of the day and who are we to complain. “After buying this big asset under such shameful manner insults are added to our injuries by the expatriates,” the senior union member said. Vodafone Ghana has recently come under intense pressure over the decision to place about 950 workers of the company on compulsory redundancy. The general public, Ghana Trades Union Congress and the government have kicked against the intended action by the company. There is apprehension among the work force of the company, as it is likely that more people could be made redundant in the days to come. At the time Vodafone purchased Ghana Telecom, the company had 1.5 million subscribers to its mobile phone system, ‘Onetouch’. Apart from that GT had in place 200,000 fixed line systems with close to 400 cell sites. There were rumpuses over the sale, as majority of Ghanaians were not in favour of the deal. Source: The Enquirer |
Monday, August 10, 2009
Vodafone Expatriate: “Ghanaians Are Lazy”
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Ghana Pundit Headline News
E-mail subscription
Pan Africa News
Graphic Ghana
MYJOYONLINE.COM
Peacefm Online - News with a vision
The Times - World News
The Times - Africa News
Pambazuka News :Emerging powers in Africa Watch
AfricaNews - RSS News
The Zimbabwe Telegraph
BBC News | Africa | World Edition
Modern Ghana
My Blog List
-
Young Worker Exodus from Low Pay Japan - Outbound 'r' Us. China is famously in dire economic straits, but how's Japan *really* doing to solve its longstanding problems like a dearth of working-a...5 days ago
-
Chinese Lending to Sri Lanka: A Factual cum “Reality” Check - Note: This guest blog post by Dr Muttukrishna Sarvananthan is a response to CARI briefing paper 08/2022: EVOLUTION OF CHINESE LENDING TO SRI LANKA SINCE TH...1 year ago
-
-
A Leopard can’t change its skin: PNDC versus Rev. Charles Palmer Buckle, NDC versus Rev Martey & Otabil - The Catholic Standard, before it was banned by the PNDC government of Jerry John Rawlings in 1985, was Ghana’s oldest private newspaper, owned by the Catho...7 years ago
-
Egyptians mass in Tahrir to honour uprising - Hundreds of thousands of people have gathered in Cairo's Tahrir Square to commemorate the first anniversary of the Egyptian revolution that toppled their l...12 years ago
-
Egyptians mass in Tahrir to honour uprising - Hundreds of thousands of people have gathered in Cairo's Tahrir Square to commemorate the first anniversary of the Egyptian revolution that toppled their l...12 years ago
-
-
-
1 comment:
There is no point arguing that the Zambian over spoke but the workers deserve the insults. The workers should keep quiet and suffer. Have they forgotten how Ghanaians were queuing to buy a mere sim card? Have they forgotten many of the management at the time made fortunes by hording and selling sim cards at cutthroat price at the peril of the company and Ghana? Why was Ghana Telecom sold in the first place? Is not corruption and lack of performance that led to the government selling 70% of the shares to Vodafone? If the workers had managed the company well and not played politics and lackerdasical attitude with it would the Zambian had come to insult them? The Ghanaian workers there must bury their heads in shame for letting Ghana down. Who are they complaining to me, the minister of employment or Mills? They have not seen anything yet.
The management of other State Owned Enterprises must take note of what is happening at Vodafone and reform the way they waste resources while under performing. Go to every state owned enterprise and what you will see is managers turning it into their own empire and fiefdom employing family members while at the same time doing nothing to increase productivity and profit. Are we going to continue in this way for how long. Somebody must drive some sense into many of the useless managers who are dragging the nation backward. Kudos to the Zambian.
Post a Comment