•NAMA to slash June salary as service providers, airlines furlough workers
Aviation unions have appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari for immediate financial intervention in order to avert what they say is a looming national crisis that would arise if aviation agencies and companies do not pay their workers.
In a letter signed by the General Secretary of the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), Ocheme Aba, Deputy General Secretary of Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association (ATSSSAN), Francis Akinjole, Secretary General of Association of Nigeria Aviation Professionals (ANAP), Abudulrazaq Saidu, and General Secretary of Amalgamated Union of Public Corporation , Civil Service, Technical and Recreational Service Employees (AUPCTRE), Babatunde Omotola, the unions say that the suffering of workers have become unbearable and if nothing is done by June 15, aviation workers all over the country would remain at home pending when their salaries would be guaranteed.
“We are compelled by the critical nature of our circumstances to alert you to the unfolding dire situation in the aviation industry in Nigeria. The situation requires urgent attention to avert a looming national crisis. As you may be aware, it took the commendable effort on the part of the management of the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) to pay salaries for the month of May. The possibility of another miracle for the month of June is bleak.
“’At the same time, the management of the Nigeria Airspace Management Authority (NAMA) has informed its in-house unions about its inability to continue to pay normal salaries. As it is well within public domain, most aviation companies have sent their workers home without salaries for months now, while some are paying a fraction of salaries to workers on essential duties compelled to come to work.
“Our unions can no longer contain the wailings of aviation workers. In the light of the above reality, the unions are constrained to serve notice that should the situation of no salary or incomplete salary remain beyond June 15, 2020, the only option left for our unions would be to ask all aviation workers to remain at home pending when their salaries would be guaranteed.
“This option would be inevitable as we are unable to bear the continuation of the present unfairness whereby the workers have to use their own meager resources to commute to work under very difficult transportation challenges. We hope that you understand our situation and direct that the needful be done,” the letter read.
Following the months long travel restrictions imposed by the Federal Government as a result of the pandemic, chains of activities like Bureau de Change, security, car hire and other businesses that thrive on passenger activities around the airport have ceased. Aircraft, airport operators, ground handlers, and almost every service provider in the aviation industry has been grounded.
The Managing Director of FAAN, Rabiu Yadudu said the agency’s revenue has dropped by 95 per cent, while the Director-General of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), the apex aviation regulatory authority, Captain Musa Nuhu, said revenue stream in his agency has shrunk by 90 percent between January and May following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
