Flight operations were disrupted across Nigeria on Monday, 17 April, due to a two-day warning strike embarked upon by unions in the aviation sector.
Development Diaries reports that the workers are protesting unpalatable working conditions and other demands which have been on the table for a while now.
It is understood that the aviation workers are demanding the approval and implementation of the condition of service (CoS), as agreed between them and the Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission (NSIWC) Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, and other agencies.
Other demands of the workers included the non-implementation of minimum wage consequential adjustments and arrears for NIMET since 2019, and the planned demolition exercise of all the agency buildings in Lagos by the Minister of Aviation for an airport city project.
The warning strike has affected scores of flights in the country, leaving thousands of local and international passengers stranded.
Recall that in February 2022, aviation workers suspended their planned strike after a memorandum of settlement reached by them and the Federal Ministry of Aviation.
The workers had an agreement with the Minister of Aviation and the Minister of Labour that by 31 March, 2022, the Ministry of Aviation must ensure the approval, release and implementation of the reviewed CoS for all the workers in the agencies under the aviation ministry, and adjustment of minimum wage of staffers in the sector.
‘We came here because the minister told us that we are making noise, and we are stupid, then we want to show them our own stupidity is not that we are stupid’, the Secretary General of Nigerian Association of Aviation Professionals was heard saying in an interview with Arise TV.
‘We are peace-loving people, but when we are pushed to the wall that is why we came out.
‘We have given them a warning strike, after seven days and if the federal executive council did not do anything, the National Assembly did not do anything, then we will embark on a total shutdown of the whole airport and we would cut Nigeria from other countries’.
A shutdown of the aviation sector and airlines will no doubt lead to economic losses for the country.
Development Diaries urges the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, to look into the grievances of the workers in order to avert a crisis in the sector.
Photo source: AP
