Unions in the Nigerian aviation industry have written an open letter to President Muhammadu Buhari over the inability of some of the agencies and companies in the sector to pay workers’ salaries due to COVID-19 pandemic.
The unions declared that if the “no or incomplete salary” issue continued, especially among the agencies until June 15, 2020, it would not hesitate to direct its members to sit at home until the issue was resolved.
The petition signed by General Secretaries of National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ATSSSAN) and the Amalgamated Union of Public Corporation Civil Service Technical And Recreational Services Employees (AUPCTRE), Comrades Comrade Ocheme Aba, Frances Akinjole and Babatunde Omotola, respectively, dated June 2, 2020 titled, ‘To Avert Crisis In the Aviation Industry,’ charged Buhari to look into the activities in the sector.
The unions agreed that the COVID-19 crisis had disrupted the world’s economies, but noted the pandemic was not caused by the workers and they should not be made to suffer it solely.
The unions emphasised that the open letter became necessary following the position of the management of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) to its in-house unions that it would no longer be able to pay salaries of workers in its establishment due to the crisis.
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It read in part: “We are compelled by the critical nature of our circumstances to alert you to the unfolding dire situation in the aviation industry in Nigeria. This situation requires urgent attention and mitigation to avert a looming national crisis.
“As you may be aware, it took commendable effort on the part of the management of 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 is well 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.”
The unions said that they may be constrained to serve a notice of “sit at home” to their members in the agencies if the situation of no salary, or incomplete salary, remained beyond June 15, 2020.
“This option will be inevitable as we are unable to justify the continuation of the present unfairness whereby the workers have to use their own meagre resources to finance their commune to and fro work under the very difficult COVID-19 transportation challenges,” the letter added.
