The redundancy notice issued by Aero Contractors of Nigeria Limited to its staff recently is fueling very serious disagreements amongst major aviation unions in the country. Aero Contractors, Nigeria’s oldest airline had on March 16th issued letters of redundancy, which affected about 60 per cent of its total workforce.
Reacting to the action of the airline, three aviation labour unions under the auspices of the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ATSSSAN) and National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE) yesterday disagreed with the sack.
In joint statement signed by the Deputy General Secretary of ATSSSAN, Comrade Frances Akinjole, General Secretary of NUATE, Comrade Olayinka Olu’ Abioye and General Secretary of NAAPE, Comrade Aba Ocheme, expressed extreme displeasure and dismay at the “unilateral and reckless attempt” of disengaging Aero staff with total disregard for the negotiated and agreed terms of redundancy between the unions and Aero Management.
The unions in the statement, dated March 17th, 2017 and copied to the Chief Executive Officer, Aero Contractors, Commissioner of Police, Airport Command and all the Branch Chairmen/Secretaries of ATSSSAN, NUATE and NAAPE stated “we were rudely shocked to learn that your Management carried out the redundancy exercise yesterday Thursday 16th March 2017 outside the purview of the negotiated terms.”
“We find it unbelievable that the same Receiver Manager who was unavailable to meet with us on Wednesday 15th March 2017 became available to endorse over 750 Notification of Redundancy letters on Thursday 16th March 2017. This exercise was carried out without any benefit whatsoever paid to the victims; not even their outstanding salaries.
“It is even more disturbing that no promise or timeline for payment was stated in the said letter”, the aviation unions added. “The trio therefore, maintained that they stand by the negotiated redundancy agreements between the parties, adding “and we shall not accept anything less. We therefore reject in totality the objectionable unilateral actions taken on the matter by your Management on Thursday 16th March 2017.”
The unions also demanded that Aero immediately withdraw the mentioned Notification of Redundancy letters and avail themselves to meet with the unions on or before the close of business on Wednesday 22ndMarch 2017 to discuss the way forward on the implementation of the signed redundancy agreements.
It equally threatened that Aero’s failure to discuss way forward will leave them with nothing, than to consider other options available to our Unions. But Association of Nigeria Aviation Professionals (ANAP) has faulted plans by the Air Transport Senior Staff services Association of Nigeria (ATSSSAN) on its plans for a showdown with management of Aero Contractors over the latter’s.