UNI Global Union deeply concerned over sale of Peru’s Telefonica operation

UNI Global Union is deeply concerned over the sale of Telefonica’s Peruvian operation for €900,000 on 13 April. This action is in addition to the sudden sale of the Argentine operation in February of this year, in both cases without prior notice with the affected unions.

In March, given the circumstances of the sale of the Argentine operation, UNI demanded that Telefónica, a Spanish telecom multinational, comply with the following commitments before the sale of one of its subsidiaries:

• It will inform the new company of the global agreement and other agreements signed by Telefónica with UNI and its affiliated unions.
• It will introduce UNI’s affiliated unions to the new management, thus facilitating a healthy dialogue between the parties.
• It will make the social clauses included in the sale agreement transparent.

In this way:

• It ensures respect for the rights of workers by mitigating any damage caused by the change of company.
• It ensures respect for existing unions and the recognition of union representatives by any new owner of Telefónica’s national operations.
• It ensures respect for collective bargaining, and the agreements already in place between the company and the unions.

Unfortunately, UNI Global Union did not receive a response from Telefonica prior to the sale of its Peruvian operation to Argentinian company, Integra Tech International. UNI demands that Telefónica comply with the demands made by UNI before the sale of one of its subsidiaries, and present the Peruvian union SUTTP to the new owners of the company in order to open dialogue between the parties.