Ericsson Hires Retrenched Orange Workers
Isaac Pinielo | Monday September 22, 2014 15:54
Following the retrenchment of 29 employees out of 85 in the Orange technical department, the company’s technical partner, Ericsson offered all the affected workers employment but one employee opted out while another secured an internal position within Orange.
According to head of legal and corporate relations at Orange, Lepata Mafa the mobile company also secured similar remuneration packages for all the affected employees.
“As we speak, we have 27 employees working with Ericsson as of September 2014, with similar or better benefits as compared to what they were being offered at Orange,” she told the media at a press briefing last week. Mafa said the whole process of laying off workers was guided by the country’s labour regulations and that they did not want the company to contribute to the already high unemployment rate of the country.
Earlier on, the Botswana Federation of Public Sector Unions (BOFEPUSU) warned Orange Botswana management against dismissing and retrenching employees without consultation and extending to them respectable retrenchment packages.
However, Mafa indicated that they have paid retrenchment packages to the laid-off workers. She pointed out that throughout the different stages of the process, all relevant stakeholders were engaged. She stressed that consultation meetings were held with employees from March 12, 2014, engaging them and requesting their opinion on the transformation project. Meanwhile, as a result of the transformation, Mafa indicated that the company has developed a Service Management Centre (SMC) division within the ITN department whose role is to ensure that service is closely monitored and resolution of network related complaints, launch of new products and monitor and analyse network quality of service. Initially the division had four employees but due to the transformation 13 positions were created, Mafa mentioned.