yuMobile employees want Sh1.2b before sale

yuMobile Chief Executive Madhur Taneja. Employees are demanding Sh1.2 billion as severance pay before the sale is completed. [PHOTO: FILE/STANDARD]

By MACHARIA KAMAU

NAIROBI, KENYA: The controversies surrounding the sale of yuMobile deepened as the firm’s employees turned down an offer to be reabsorbed by the two operators that have bid to buy the mobile operator.

The employees are instead demanding for Sh1.2 billion as severance pay before the sale is completed. Essar Telecom Kenya (ETKL) – an affiliate of Essar of India and runs yuMobile in Kenya – has gotten bids from two largest mobile operators in Kenya — Safaricom and Airtel Kenya.

Safaricom is looking to buy yuMobile infrastructure while the Kenyan operation of India’s Bharti Airtel will acquire the residual assets including the numbering prefix and 2.7 million customers.

The company has said it is negotiating a ‘people transition’ process where employees would be taken up by the acquiring firms upon conclusion of the deal. In an e-mail correspondence seen by The Standard, the management told the employees that it expected many of them would be absorbed by the buyers once the transactions are complete.

KICKED OUT

But in a response, also on email, Stephen Kaapei, a representative of Essar employees, said the employees do not want to be transferred to the acquiring entities and instead want complete severance with the firm before it reaches a deal with the two suitors.

“The employees have the following resolutions that need your immediate attention…. employees have resolved that they need a separation with ETKL… employees demand that the offer management has negotiated with potential buyers be disclosed forthwith,” said Kaapei in an e-mail to the chief executive.

In a briefing yesterday, Kaapei, also an employee, said the employees were demanding Sh1.2 billion severance pay.

“As employees, we are afraid that if the sale process goes on, we might be kicked out without any benefits. We have tried to engage the management so that we know what will happen to the employees but nothing has come forward,” he said.

Madhur Taneja, chief executive, however, said the management has kept all its employees abreast of what has happened and added that the company would ensure the interests of the employees were protected even if it meant heavy losses on the side of Essar.

“Although this is a transaction in which Essar will inevitably lose hundreds of millions of dollars, we are committed to ensuring that the employees are given rightful dues and opportunities for future growth,” he said.

LOSE BENEFITS

He however declined to comment further, noting that it would be in contempt as many of the issues were before court. The employees said there is precedence in the local ICT industry where similar moves have seen employees lose benefits and even previous terms of employment.

Kaapei also said Essar has treated its indigenous employees in a discriminatory manner, saying the management has been prepping expatriate workforce for the sale of the Kenyan unit and has awarded them ‘constructive dismissal packages’ while keeping the locals in the dark.