Rwandatel Chief Executive Officer, Patrick Kariningufu, on Friday denied claims that the company’s restructuring process had resulted in the unfair sacking of 120 employees.

Last week the telecommunications company fired 120 employees, with reasons given being that the employees lack adequate qualifications and are incompetent, as explained to The New Times, by Rwandatel Public Relations Officer, Cleophas Kabasiita.

"Just like the Labour Code stipulates, we intend to give the sacked employees their retrenchment packages of six months salaries, depending on the number of years they worked for the company so there should be no fears about this,” Kariningufu told The New Times.

He charged that all complaints in relation to performance are completely baseless because the restructuring procedure demanded that each staff member applies for three positions including the ones they held initially.

"For all staff members the pass mark was 40 percent and 60 percent for the managerial posts. All those who did not meet this mark were sacked and none was retained so these complaints that we retained some failures are wrong,” he emphasised.

The fired employees, have since taken their case to the workers’ union umbrella body, CESTRAR, which has said it will launch a probe into the matter.

The Secretary General of CESTRAR, Eric Manzi, however confirmed that a follow-up is yet to be done so that necessary measures are taken to settle this matter.

In relation to the vacant positions, the CEO added that although 120 were fired, the company intends to recruit 144 and beginning this week, the jobs will be advertised in different media houses.

Rwandatel had 427 employees before the massive lay-off.

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