HOW AIRTEL BOSS, RAJAN SWAROOP DEADBEAT NIGERIANS THROUGH HIS INDIAN COMPANY, SPANCO

The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Airtel Nigeria, Mr. Rajan Swaroop, has been alleged of enslaving Nigerians through his Indian company, Spanco.  Investigation revealed that Airtel had long ago contracted Spanco, a specialist in BPO, to recruit many of its contract staffs. But a peep into Spanco’s activities has revealed how the Indian firm is enslaving its numerous staff and all sorts of unethical practices it indulges in.

The enslavement came to fore recently when Airtel winded down the operation of its call centre in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja which is managed by Spanco and transferred it to Ibadan. While many did not see anything wrong with this development, investigation showed that the move was a ploy by Spanco to clamp down the salary of its contract workers also known as agents.

According to a source, the movement to Ibadan would see the workers go down from N70, 000 a month to N26, 000 in salary per employee. Some workers we were told had to resign due to this harsh development. Over 700 workers we learnt had to resign their job out of the 800 workers at the call centre.

It was learnt that in order to ensure an amicable resolution of what would have been a confrontation, the workers were offered severance/retirement deal that saw many of them going home with up to N200,000.

There are scoops that the company has hired 400 call centre agents in Ibadan in preparation for the movement to Ibadan which will happen in December. The new workers would be receiving N26, 000 per month.

Those in the know alleged that the employment outfit is owned by Airtel telecom boss, Swaroop. We learnt this trend is common with many companies’ CEOs, especially the Indians. We gathered the employment firms recruit third party workers at a minute percentage of the original remuneration approved and pocket the rest sum.