The two Business Process Out-sourcing (BPO) companies, which provide Call Centre services to Airtel Nigeria, Tech Mahindra and Spanco have refuted allegations that Airtel had fired 3,000 call centre agents.

Sections of the media reported that Airtel had fired 3,000 Call Centre agents due to a disagreement over a purported plan to reduce salaries.

But the two BPO companies in a joint statement said “this is untrue.

The statement said the two companies inherited over 1,600 Call Centre agents from Bezaleel, HR Index and CCSNL who used to provide call centre agents for Zain before it was bought by Airtel.

“The contract that existed between us and two of the previous agencies namely CCSNL and HR Index expired effective Friday September 30, 2011,” the statement said.

It said the third agency, Bezaleel’s, contract would expire in January 2012 so there was no issue of mass sack but expiration of existing contracts.

The statement said prior to the expiration of the contracts, Tech Mahindra and Spanco had engaged representatives of the agents and that of the organized labour on how to manage their transition to the new companies payroll.

“Due to a lack of consensus on the way forward and an apparent threat to our facilities by some of the agents, we were compelled to suspend operations at the call centres last Friday, September 30, 2011,” it said.

But the statement said the two companies planned to recruit new agents and also offer some of the affected agents a new contract with attendant salaries and benefits based on their qualifications and experience, adding “our vision is to expand the Call Centre business capacity to 5000 , ultimately.”

On the issue of salaries, the statement said the two companies have promised to give employees remunerations and benefits comparable to standards across the world and in compliance with the working and labour laws of Nigeria.

They therefore appealed to Airtel customers to bear with them as they seek to resolve the issues and re-open the call centres in the coming days.

“Indeed, we have also taken appropriate measures to ensure that our client’s customers experience minimal inconvenience during this brief period,” it said.

The statement said it was important to note that the activities of the disgruntled agents are capable of frustrating investors with good intentions and make nonsense of the Federal Government’s drive for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).