New Safaricom CEO Dangerous for Workers’ Rights
It has come to our attention that Safaricom PLC is on a mission to restructure its mode of management whilst at the same time doing away with some of its employees. Even though, as COTU (K), we don’t have control over the management style employers adopt from time to time, we are highly concerned about the prospects of job security with the implementation of certain management styles.
As reported in one of the local dailies today, the new CEO of Safaricom PLC Mr. Peter Ndegwa has caused a lot of anxiety among its more than 6,000 employees by asking a majority of them to reapply for their current jobs. This new move by the Safaricom CEO, which goes against ILO Conventions particularly on the protection of jobs, is not acceptable and remains an affront to workers’ rights.
It’s insensitive and inhuman, for Mr. Ndegwa, to bring about drastic changes at Safaricom PLC while infringing on the rights of workers who have built Safaricom to what it is today where it enjoys more than 30 million subscribers. It’s also shocking that even though Mr. Ndegwa is the first Kenyan Safaricom CEO, he remains the most dangerous CEO the company has ever had when it comes to protecting workers’ rights.
COTU (K) is also alive to the fact that Safaricom has refused several attempts to unionize their workers and that Mr. Ndegwa while serving as CEO for Guinness Nigeria PLC faced off with Unions from West Africa as he forcefully reduced the workforce by nearly 45%.
We, therefore, demand that Mr. Ndegwa stops forthwith causing anguish, despair and depression among its employees in his mission to maximize profit considering it’s the workers who build the reputation and capacity of a company to realize profits.
However, if Mr. Ndegwa doesn’t stop this forthwith, we appeal to the Board of Directors at Safaricom PLC, including other shareholders, to make sure that Mr. Ndegwa is relieved of his duties because of his poor managerial style that seeks to maximize profits at the expense of its employees.
Ends.
Yours sincerely
Dr. Francis Atwoli, NOM (DZA), CBS, EBS, MBS
SECRETARY GENERAL
