Telenor to Lay off Over 100 Employees in Pakistan

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Telenor is planning to lay off at least 100 employees from Pakistan to outsource major Finance and Accounting tasks to Accenture Bangladesh, we have confirmed with sources.

Sources confirmed that Telenor Group is in process of taking a decision on the matter and final outcome is expected around last week of April 2014.

Interestingly the labour in Pakistan is more cost efficient than Dhaka, however, Telenor Norway has made a complete U turn in its strategy and commitment towards Pakistan, which was managing group’s finance functions for quite a time now.

Imran Ashraf, Head of Telenor Global Shared Services Pakistan, in an email communication, confirmed ProPakistani the possibility of freeing up resources. He said:

Telenor Global Shared Services Norway is expected to make some changes in its operating model which involves organizational changes with possible impact on employees based in Norway and Pakistan.

No formal decision about any change has been taken yet.

The GSS Board of Directors in Norway will decide and make an announcement which is expected towards the end of April.

Impacted employees will be mainly from Telenor Shared Services (TSS), an entity that handles Telenor’s Finance and Accounting Functions.

Telenor Global Shared Services Pakistan is an internal provider of services to Telenor Group in Finance & Accounting, IT and Customer Services.

Some of the employees – who were initially employed by Telenor Pakistan and then moved to TSS — are working with Telenor since 2004, however, major chunk of TSS was hired in the last two years with promises about future job security and career advancements.

These fresh graduates (mainly ACCA’s) were hired through on contractual terms through third party vendors and hence are not even legally owned by Telenor. Though in substance even the interviews, short
listing etc. are all done by Telenor Pakistan.

It has become a norm now that multinational companies – particularly the telcos — hire workforce through third-parties. The term that is usually billed as outsourcing offers top-notch performance from youth without any obligatory requirements.

This is a big slap on our so-called system that the employers in Pakistan have legally sought out a way to avoid their responsibilities by hiring through third party contracting firms that do not even have physical
presence.

As a matter of fact, majority of impacted employees from Telenor do not even know the office location of their legal employer.

It is also a moment of rethinking for the major political parties squeezing votes from the youth upon claims for uplifting youth and workforce rights especially PTI and PML-N.

The best part of all is that this is being done by the “Best Employer of Pakistan“.

Tech and telecom reporter for over 15 years


  • TBH! its a global phenomenon. Contractual jobs are Norm in western societies, but i believe its the clandestine/dodgy nature CEOs/country heads of these MNCs who should be blamed for such sad situation in Purestan.

  • It is getting a norm these days. I Suggest to government to make a policy to restrict the contractual employes to a certain percentage in each organization based on org income etc. If the Multinationals are reaping profits from Pakistan, they must also be responsible enough to create secure jobs..

  • Mr. Aamir, I dont know but it seems that you have grudge against Telenor Pakistan, the tone of such news from you about them is strange, please read your older posts about Mobilink and PTCL lay offs and compare … there is clear difference

    regarding the lay-offs, unfortunately this is a Global issue and quite unfortunate but these are businesses not social welfare organizations. the main thing to do from regulator side is to set up a floor for lowest price so that businesses continue to generate revenues and can support staff and frankly now is the right time with 3G auction billion dollar investments need to be secured and investor given confidence of returns so setting up a floor would be best.

    I pray that the news is false and all such jobs are not lost to outsourcing

    • Next you (or someone from your team) will say that I do this coz you don’t give me ads LOL

      I am used to of such feedback from Telenor, which I have started to enjoy.

      • well written Aamir.. and very soory to say this is a very correct news.. and I am 100% sure that can happen only becasue of BAD MANAGEMENT and WORST PLANNING

      • typical …. u cant take objective criticism !!!
        and just for the record I dont work for Telenor or any TP related organization, you have my email look me up on social media sites

      • can you kindly produce evidence of this mail, like mail header?

        PS: don’t say you cant disclose header on account of confidentiality as you already have disclosed identity of the person

        • Forget about headers. Beat this: IP address of yours is somewhat relating with Maani’s.

          • really, so how about answering what i asked? avoiding it will confirm this as baseless propaganda.

  • For Me where I can see that; this is the CEO and his higher Managemnt’s job to secure such incidents from happening. and if this information is correct then Iet me say that CEO and his higher management should be out 1st. if they dont have the capability to do their own job correctly.
    Second question; is the founddation of Telenor TSS is so weak that they cannot handle such cases.
    Third Best employeer title should be taken back from Telenor immediatly ; if this happens.
    Aamir Can you post these messages to CEO

  • Wow .. I can smell some serious biasness here .. Do you have something personal against Telenor ? This doesnt look like a news on neutral grounds, rather someone pushing their personal grudge against Telenor. GROW UP

    • Its a matter of 2 weeks. Telenor is going to be a bull shit network. They deployed the cheapest equipment. And soon will lay off dozens of guyz.

    • It’s not ‘biasness’, but bias. And, no. They are outsourcing jobs from PK to Bangladesh. What do you suggest, should we TC them?

  • 3rd-party resource gets handsome salary as compared to what permanent role gets in bits & pieces.Its decision of person to opt for permanent job elsewhere with “fine” salary or “almost double” salary at contractual role for 6 months or 1year only. However, 3rd-party employee should have clear mind that job role will be limited to contract period only.

    Agreed with Mani, this is not social welfare its business and investor has
    to get his profit as well to keep business running. Its not about getting sentimental when things are per-agreed by employer and employee. If state / regulatory is tightening business grounds (tax & load-shedding)
    in country then business have to take such step, may it be PTCL ,
    Mobilink, Telenor or any XYZ.

    Kindly avoid giving biased point of view instead of making people emotional portraying half picture!

    • this is called Oppertunity cost in business terms… if you Get some Thing, you have to Pay for it.. if there is a contract ,, there is a risk of lay off.. what I did for this, i preffered Govt. Sector with limited salary but job security.. if i would preffer income I will have to compromise over the other end… this is the bitter reality we all should accept… however I feel pitty for these guys and hope that they would get some thing better than this…

  • I agree with Mr. Amir. There does not seem any discrimination sort of thing. Agree that firms are doing business not taking part in the social welfare but yet, firms have a social responsibility as well in the society where they operate. This social responsibility starts from the direct business activities up to the indirect affectees from the business. Downsizing is a norm in the business but there are always the approaches and channels which are adopted to minimize the impact…

  • Its time now for Pakistani government to do some law making so that no firm could lay off employees like that. Some employee protection laws are must as its now becoming routine practice of telecom companies in Pakistan.

    • There ARE employee protection laws and those laws are being followed TO THE LETTER.

      If you want the government to strengthen laws, then that is a different thing. But to say “we need laws” when you don’t know that the laws already exist…you should do your homework.

      • I am talking about the laws which would allow the employee to sue the employer and retain his job if he/she is losing job only because employer is losing profits .

  • Warid Telecom, recently, laid off more than 50 permanent top performing employees without any prior notice. How brutal these MNCs are playing with the careers of professionals in Pakistan. Has Govt no policy/authority to secure its professionals where its already unable to create more jobs for the learned people so finally driving them make their way abroad. Is PTA destined to collect money from foreign operators at the cost of high profile professionals?

    • Welcome to the new world. You think the situation is any different in better countries?

  • Dear Mr Amir, hope you will be sympathetic enough to highlight the ruthless decisions by Warid & TP top management to the corridors of justice and regulator. by the way, why u missed the cruel act in Warid from highlighting on this forum.?

  • WOULD SOMEONE JUSTIFY “OUTSOURCED EMPLOYMENT” FOR ONCE? It is not justified in the first place, let alone layoffs. Every org should own the employees.

  • What none of you mentioned why Accenture operates in Bangladesh and not Pakistan. These jobs would have been inside Pakistan..,,

    This is a business environment of Pakistan. Telenor , Vodafone operate in India as well. However the layoff there are in very extreme cases,

    Telenor Mobilink both represent a very mature telecoms group who take a global view if there businesses and Pakistan as a country needs to provide the attractiveness and healthy business environment to them. In return we will get more business

    Sad to see people lose job

  • guys, BPO is a global business model to optimize cost n benefits. My one question , why Telenor did think while hiring these executive ? Why Telenor hire too much for such strange posts with such strange positions that became burden on payroll.
    To outsource is not a bad strategy but to lay-off is simply a TP management failure that they failed to bring further business instead they shifted outside Pakistan.
    Third and last , why don’t we have SOLID labour laws like if any company laying off employees should give 6months salaries in advance etc.

  • Grameenphone is telenor in bangladesh.
    they have an IT arm called GPIT.
    GPIT is acquired by Accenture.
    Accenture will use GPIT resources to serve whole Telenor group worldwide.

  • That’s the dumbest thing I’ve read on this blog all day. Seriously, you live in a fairy tale land, not the real world. What will you ask for next, a law to force companies to use human employees when work can be done better by computers and robots? Dumb dumb dumb.

    Companies exist to make money. That’s it. Whether they are responsible and good to their employees or not, that is their SOLE purpose: make money for their owners.

    Also rizk is from Allah, not from employers. No where in Islam is it guaranteed that you will have a job, let alone retain one.

    • There are ways to lay off employees man. It must not be so short notice, specially when employee is doing good work and its the organization which does not want him/her anymore.
      If its org which does not want anyone anymore, then proper benefits must be accompanied,

      On Rizk is from Allah, I totally agree.

      • Again, they followed the law. The law says they have to give X time of notice/benefits to employees or pay money. Did you read any reports that they didn’t follow the law? Things are different UNDER THE LAW for contractual employees.

        However good the employee is working, if the company has to fire 5% or 10% or whatever of its staff, you can be sure that they will fire good people along with poor performers. Some teams simply do not have bad performers.

        • Would here somebody endorse that someone from top notch Govt authority stand up and tell telenor that if they are earning in Pakistan, they have to have local manpower whether it is contractual / permanent or outsourced. How come saying it a rationale that it is business, it is not social welfare bla blaa………. Bro in every international tender / bid there are certain bindings (in terms of employment generation, taxation, CSR, environment and so on) on the bidders / businesses doing business in the country from outside.

          • When we are a poor country who goes around begging West, Saudi Arabia/UAE, etc. every year for money because we cannot bother to fix up our own tax system and go after large offenders (some of them in the government, some in bureucracy, some even in military). then ON WHAT TERMS can we approach outsiders?

            Look how Etisalaat still hasn’t paid all what have to pay almost a decade after they got PTCL. What have we done about it?

            • SS rightly said. We need to revamp ourselves and review our priorities…… this is pathetic being a nation to whom nobody gives a damn…..


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