AVIATION UNIONS ISSUED NOTICE TO SHUT DOWN THE AIRSPACE IF…
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Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Barrister Festus Keyamo SAN
Management of the six parastatals under the federal ministry of aviation including the supervisory ministry itself, have all been put on notice by the aviation workers unions of their grievous decision to totally withdraw their services at the early hours of Tuesday, 8th February 2022, although with a proviso.
The announcement was made by all the aviation workers unions under the auspices of the Amalgamated Unions of Public Corporations, Civil Service Technical and Recreational Services Employees, AUPCTRE.
The workers lamented that the last meeting held at the instance of the Federal Ministry of Aviation on 31st January 2022, failed to resolve any of the two thorny issues at stake for compliance by the ministry and its parastatals/agencies
All the three aviation unions and the amalgamated union frowned at all the concerned agencies of government responsible for the protracted delay in the release and implementation of the negotiated condition of service for workers at the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, Nigeria Airspace Management Agency, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, Nigerian College of Aviation Technology, NCAT, Accident Investigation Bureau, AIB, and the Nigerian Meteorological Agency, NiMet.
The leadership of the unions called on the Ministry of Aviation, National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission, the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation, any other organ of government including Management of the agencies/parastatals to release wholly, the condition of service for implementation with effect from the date of the signing of the agreement between the Unions and the respective agencies.
The different aviation unions unitedly pressing for the release of the condition of service of their members are the Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, ATSSSAN, National Union of Air Transport Employees, NUATE, the Association of Nigerian Aviation Professionals, ANAP and the Amalgamated Unions of Public Corporations, Civil Service Technical and Recreational Services Employees, AUPCTRE.
Another and the second demand by the unions is about the release and immediate implementation of the new Minimum Wage/Consequential Adjustment which they requested must be immediately implemented with effect from the subsisting date in April 2019.
The unions however appealed to “the management of FAAN, NCAA, NAMA, NIMET, AIB and NCAT, in conjunction with the Federal Ministry of Aviation to utilize the one-week window so provided (from 1st-7th February 2022) to avert this huge crisis by prevailing on the relevant government agencies to act jointly or severally to ensure that our twin demands are met,” the unions said.
Hence, in a media statement, the unions’ coalition directed “all branches and State Councils of the Unions…to commence joint and individual mobilization of aviation workers nationwide and ensure total compliance with this directive in all stations of operations of the six aviation agencies without fail”, it stated.
The unions also called on all airlines, ground handlers, aviation security/logistics, inflight caterers, and other aviation-related businesses as well as the travelling and general public to be informed that aviation services will be unavailable from (12 midnight, on 8th February 2022.) the given time until the issues are fully resolved.
AIB DENOUNCES ITS WORKERS INVOLVEMENT IN THE FACE-OFF
The petite but vibrant agency, Accident Investigation Bureau-Nigeria, AIB-N, who since the past four years has been recording a meteoric rise in its rating, has made a public statement to denounce its workers’ involvement in the ongoing hoopla about the condition of service and the payment of adjusted minimum wage in which its other sister agencies are embroiled.
A statement by the bureau’s spokesperson, Mr Tunji Oketunbi, General Manager, Public Affairs, disclosed that “AIB-N has a current and valid Conditions of Service, CoS.”
The statement explained that the “Conditions of Service was approved by Office of the Head of Service on 20th June 2018 and received by the Bureau in July 2019.”
Oketunbi averred that the document had “since been in operation in the Bureau and being enjoyed by the staff”.
He concluded the denunciation with an emphatic tone thus, “this is just to clear the air that AIB-N has no contention over Conditions of Service and so is not among the agencies the labour is contending over”
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