Dear Editor,
My colleagues and I have been working for Africell (call center) for many years before being it was outsourced to 24/7 Call center. We first went on a 6 months’ probation with them. After the 6 months, we were offered very rediculous contracts. The contract was so bad that we were never given the time to read the full contract nor givena copy of it. We were told to either sign or leave. We had no option but to sign because we all know how hard it is to acquire a job.
On December 1, 2014, we were given our confirmation letters as full time staff for the 24/7 Call Center. (See copy of it attached, the name is sealed to hide the identity). We have been working as staff since then.
On 12th June, 2017, to our total dismay we were given another contract paper to sign which we could not understand why we should sign a contract when we are already confirmed as staff of the company. The funniest thing is the contract is dated January 1, 2017, which we were never informed about.
So as thing are we want the relevant Authorities to help us address or answer the following because when we tried to ask them to address some of our concerns they said we either sign or failure to do so means we reject it meaning we’ve lost our jobs.
1. Is there anywhere in our Labour Laws that says after employees are hired they can sign a temporary contract. Because according to the new contract we are now on temporary employment (See copy of the contract too)
2. Can an employer put an employee on probation without their consent until the last month of the probation as it is in our case?
3. Is it possible to go on leave while on probation because since January 1, 2017, staff whose leave was due have been going on leave every 15 days of every month. As we are writing this piece some are still on leave and were called to come and sign their contracts.
4. We want to know who came up with this decision if it is Amie Singhateh Mbye, The Manager of 24/7 call centre who also doubles as the wife of Mr Badara Mbye MD Africell. What also doubt us is, they said the call center is outsourced but until now afrcell is paying our salaries and electricity bills of the complex, and even if a bulb is blown out, it is africell that will fixes it. Which makes the outsource issue questionable.
We put our concerns to you with the hope that someone out there will take a step to remedy the situation. We all voted for change with the believe that the new dispensation will help stop the injustices that we are facing at our work places.
We have suffered a lot at africell and nothing has ever been done about it.
Note: Whatever is written in this piece is nothing but the truth. We are fasting and will never write lies in this holy month of Ramadan.
And we will be coming up with more damning revelations about George Khairallah (one of the heartless Lebanese that is in charge of the call center) and Mr Badara Mbye for all the dirty business day are doing.
