Aviation Workers Suspend Planned Strike, No More Grounding Of Planes

Aviation workers under the umbrella of the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), and the Association of Nigeria Aviation Professionals (ANAP) have suspended their impending nationwide strike.

The suspension followed a marathon meeting between representatives of the two associations and the Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige.

Both parties signed the agreement at the end of the meeting on Tuesday morning, avoiding the planned grounding of local and international flights from today.

Ngige said: “The National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission was requested to issue a service-wide circular informing all organisations in the public and private sectors that they are bound to implement the National Minimum Wage of 2019/consequential adjustments.

“The Ministry of Aviation is to circulate the circular on the consequential minimum wage adjustment to all the agencies under the supervision of the ministry, requesting them to implement the National Minimum Wage consequential adjustment without any further delay and also clarify that this payment became effective from April 18, 2019, when the Minimum Wage was signed into law.”

The unions had earlier notified airlines and the public of total withdrawal of air travel services come February 8 in protest against poor welfare and non-release of the agreed Conditions of Service (CoS).

The industrial action would have grounded both local and international flight services nationwide.

The coalition, made up of members of National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ATSSSAN) and Association of Nigeria Aviation Professionals (ANAP), drew attention to government’s failure to release the negotiated CoS of the six aviation agencies since 2013.

They also complained about the non-implementation of minimum wage and consequential adjustment since 2019.