Salary cut: Unions poise for action with aviation agencies

…write President Buhari

Key labour unions in the aviation industry Tuesday rose from an emergency meeting on with a two week notice of impending industrial crisis should government agencies failed to pay full salaries of their respective workers at the end of the month.

The labour unions include National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ATSSSAN); Association of Nigeria Aviation Professionals (ANAP) and Amalgamated Union of Public Corporation Civil Service Technical and Recreational Services Employees (AUPCTRE).

The unions in an open letter to President Muhammadu Buhari painted a gloomy picture of the nation’s aviation the industry as related to workers’ welfare under the prevailing effect of COVID19 pandemic.

In the letter, the Unions declared” the situation requires urgent attention and mitigation to avert a looming the national crisis”.

“It took commendable effort on the part of the management of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) to pay salaries for the month of May. The possibility of another such miracle for the month of June is rather bleak.

“At the same time, the management of NAMA has informed its in house Unions about its inability to continue to pay normal salaries.

“And as in within public domain, most Aviation companies have sent their workers home without salaries for months now while some are paying only a fraction of salaries to workers on essential duties compelled to come to work.

” While the adverse socio-economic situation imposed by the COVID19 is an of God, there can be little debate that workers have been dealt with a larger portion of the burden to bear due to no fault of theirs.

“This burden has become exceedingly telling on the workers, and the cost has become unbearable. Our Unions can no longer contain the wailings of our members, the Aviation workers.

“In light of the above reality, our Unions are constrained to serve notice that should the situation of no salary, or incomplete salary , remain beyond the 15th of June,2020, the only option left for our Unions will be to ask all aviation workers to remain at home pending when their salaries can be guaranteed.