Fire on Glo’s mountain?

Without our mothers, we would not be here”, said the officiating priest last Sunday at our Mothers’ Day celebration. He went on to reel the many virtues of motherhood and called on the faithful to accord due recognition to the sacrifices our multitasking women make to sustain the home front and lay a solid foundation for the future generation.

As the priest did his panegyrics, what was going through my mind was the story of the ninety-plus women recently fired by frontline telecoms service provider, Globacom Ltd, allegedly for getting married.

I kept asking myself, what could be responsible for the cashiering of over 90 female staff of Gloworld, the retail arm of Globacom, in one fell swoop with a terminal payment of just one month’s salary? The former staff insist that their ordeal is traceable to their change of status from single to married. In other words, they are alleging discrimination based, not just on gender, but on marital status.

The staff in question had served between seven and fifteen years. Some were still under bond and would have had to compensate the company if they disengaged before the bonded date. Now that the initiative has come from their employer, they are aghast that what most of them have to show for their years of service to the largest indigenous telecoms provider in the country is one month’s terminal salary.

The affected staff say they feel used and dumped. “We spent all our youth, between 8 to 15 years, serving an organisation that has treated us like this. It is inhuman and we refuse to accept it lying low… even though we don’t want to go back there”, says one of them in a social media video clip.

Talking of humiliation, the women alleged that they were kept in limbo for about one week. The company had not communicated their sack to them before sending fresh hands to take over their various schedules. To substantiate the allegation of discrimination based on marital status, one of them claimed that five out of the six staff working in her last posting were fired, leaving only their unmarried colleague.

And there is a worrying allegation that some of the female staff recently recruited were made to sign bonds pledging not to get married for a stated period of time. This ought to be investigated for our collective sanity.

A civil society group, Citizens Advocacy for Social and Economic Rights, CASER, has joined the fray, claiming to have “unassailable evidence that the recent termination of the employment of over 100 (one hundred) Nigerian women by Globacom Ltd, is linked to their status as married women.” CASER also alleges that the company subjects its female staffers to “beauty tests such as possessing good body shapes or declaring the number of child births recorded amongst other criteria”, all of which it describes as “obnoxious, highly offensive and unfair”.

Some commentators have asked a barrage of questions on social media: What is so special about working in a telecoms company to require some female staff to remain single? Does such a policy bode well for society? Since when has the prospect of motherhood become a crime punishable by sack?

Globacom has spoken up in its own defence. “Globacom has in the recent past let go of employees, both male and female, married and single, due to performance issues. It is not true that this was restricted to married women alone…. The letter in circulation is a forged document. Globacom has not issued any such letter to anyone…. Globacom upholds gender equality irrespective of marital status and promotes equal opportunities for the growth and personal development of all staff.”

I don’t know the inner workings of Globacom or its retail arm, Gloworld. Having been in the media space for more than four decades however, I have a gut feeling that the best thing the company ought to do in the current circumstance is to thoroughly investigate the allegations and then take appropriate steps to make remedies where adjudged deserving.

It takes massive capital, steadfastness and good service delivery to build a brand to such an extent that the company is considered reputable and that its products are reliable and deliver on promise. Globacom has scaled the odds to emerge as the first indigenous company to break into the big league of telecoms service providers and should, ideally, take a gracious bow for that feat.

However, we have seen strong brands come and go in this country. No brand is too big to fall. I am impressed that the company realises how its brand could be damaged by the weighty allegations laid at its doorsteps. When a set of issues border on human rights and gender discrimination, no serious company deserving of popular patronage can afford to simply wave it aside. Without prejudice to the right of organisations to fire their staff based on laid down ground rules, every reputable organisation does due diligence to ensure that its processes are in line with global best practices. As a global player, Globacom should aim for no less.

From time immemorial, women have suffered so much discrimination all over the world. Even in so-called developed countries, women are at a disadvantage when it comes to earnings and promotions. Some companies treat pregnancy as a disease whose carrier must be quarantined or banished. That kind of mindset should not be tolerated in the twenty-first Century.