Aviation experts advocate better pay for pilots, aircraft engineers
The welfare of pilots who fly planes has always been a topical issue especially in Nigeria aviation sector where many domestic airlines have always struggled financially and are usually forced to owe salaries, pensions or make their pilots and engineers redundant.
The National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE) has engaged various domestic operators and aviation agencies to troubleshoot on issues that have do so with wages and welfare of their members.
In a letter recently written to President Bola Tinubu and jointly signed by NAAPE, the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ATSSSAN) Association of Nigeria Aviation Professionals (ANAP) and the Amalgamated Union of Public Corporation Civil Service Technical and Recreational Services Employees, the unions urged him to direct the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission (NSIWC) and the relevant parastatals to immediately implement the negotiated Conditions of Service (CoS) for aviation workers.
The unions expressed frustration that for close to a decade, most of the aviation agencies have operated without valid staff Conditions of Service (CoS), despite having concluded management-unions review many years ago. They said the frustration of the bureaucracy led them to declare a two-day warning strike in 2022 and another in 2023 but that they are yet to secure the expected outcome despite their efforts to have the issue resolved before the inauguration of this administration.
To brainstorm on the debilitating issue of welfare, a symposium was held recently by NAAPE in Port Harcourt with theme: “Effective Economic Regulation of the Aviation Industry as an imperative for Safety and Workers’ Welfare”.
At the event, speakers said that in civil aviation, it is the responsibility of the pilot to ensure the safety, therefore the safety of the passenger is proportional to the total wellbeing of the pilot and should be prioritised. The national president of NAAPE, an aircraft engineer, Abednego Galadima, who has been engaged in negotiations with many airlines and agencies for better welfare for his members, said in his welcome address, that the theme on workers’ welfare was chosen in order to promote safety in the sector.
He said over the years, operators and agencies have failed to pay salaries when due, while the issues of staff insurance, pensions and gratuities had been a major challenge in the sector.
He said he hoped that the theme would force an improved working relationship between the employers and employees, insisting that the employees should not be shortchanged by the employers. He also called on the Rivers State Government to take a cue from the Akwa Ibom State Government by setting up an airline and Maintenance, Repair Overhaul (MRO) facility, saying that this would lead to improved revenues to the state, while tourism would also increase.
NAAPE in its communique signed by Galadima, said that the technical personnel in the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and the Nigeria Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB) are very poorly paid which has led to high attrition rate among the technical personnel. The remuneration, they said, falls far short of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) recommendation and industry standards and they called for immediate upward review in the interest of safety and to attract the needed qualified and experienced hands.
The association also said that the 2023 Nig.CARs. still retained what they described as ‘conflicting and ambiguous’ provision on duty rest period for Aircraft Maintenance Engineers (AME), making Approved Maintenance Organsiations (AMOs) to use AMEs for extended period beyond the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) recommended work hours and urged the NCAA to immediately resolve the ‘ambiguity’.
Galadima’s echoed the same view as the Director General of the NCAA, Capt. Musa Nuhu, who last year, revealed that even though the agency has very experienced pilots with minimum of 4,000 flying hours, the pay is poor when compared to what the industry is paying.
During a chat with aviation reporters in Lagos, Nuhu, who was responding to the letter by the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) to the Senate, calling on the Federal Government to remove the NCAA from the civil service structure to enable the agency attract the right personnel in order to safeguard the aviation industry, said because of the poor pay, people will rather go and work in the industry as a captain and earn more instead of being paid less than N1 million at the agency.
At the time, he said: “We have very experienced pilots with minimum of 4,000 flying hours, which is the recommendation to be a flying instructor. But our pay is poor when compared to what the industry is paying. Our pay within the civil service structure seems to be great, but if you compare that to the closest we need from the industry, our pay is poor. So, people will rather go and work in the industry as a captain, earn some millions of naira, than to come here and earn less than N1 million.
“If I can work somewhere and get triple of my monthly salaries for less work, why will I go and work somewhere else? The only people that come to work for NCAA as flight operation inspectors are people who have retired from flying. People who have attained the age of 65 years or more and we employ them on special contracts and even as a special contract staff, when you get to 70 years of age, you are supposed to leave.
“If you employ someone who is 65 years old, it takes you about 18 months to two years to train him and by the time he’s going to function as a full inspector, he has three years to go. He has to go by age 70. This is not a very efficient system. We need to find a right balance within the senior inspectors and the younger ones so that we do not have this every four years disruption where we have to start looking for inspectors. It is very disruptive and it is not the most efficient use of resources. We certainly need the elderly people for their experience, but we need to strike the right balance.”
At the symposium in Portharcourt, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) which NAAPE is a part of, said it is unfortunate how many operators and agencies in the sector treat their workers poorly by owing their salaries, not remitting their pensions and other benefits as required by the law.
The President of NLC, Joe Ajaero, who was represented by the national vice president, Stephen Okoro, said that some of airline operators treat the pilots and engineers poorly and that some of them are in the habit of deducting pensions and other benefits from pilots and engineers but alleged that these deductions are not appropriately remitted by the operators. He said that while the operators have denied the pilots and engineers the right to join any unions or associations of their choice, the airlines form and belong to various bodies locally and internationally.
He also said that some of the pilots and engineers are owed several months of salaries, which has affected their psyche and performance, warning that such could negatively impact on safety and professional judgments of the technical personnel.
“The truth remains that Safety and other organisational outcomes are hugely dependent on the character and nature of the diverse capacities and dispositions of the workforce. It is also trite that whatsoever happens to a worker in the workplace either makes him to commit or withdraw from work. There is therefore a strong functional relationship between the sensitivity of workers at every given point in time with the quantum of organizational outcomes of which Safety is one.
“A healthy workforce guarantees a healthy bottom line. A healthy workforce ensures greater safety in the World of Works. Healthy pilots and engineers secure to a very large extent, safety in the aviation industry and for a sensitive sector like yours, that is critical for not just the lives of passengers but also for the survival of the operators in the industry,” he said.
The guest speaker at the symposium, Iteke Ifeanyi, who is the Acting General Manager, Air Operator Certification and Surveillance at the NCAA, empasised on the need for training personnel to ensure that safety standards are maintained.
He said: “The primary objective of establishing an organisation (service provision) is to make profit. However, it is very important to note that in making profit, it must be made “safely” in order to ensure continued safe operation. So, this becomes a dilemma for the management of the organisation in that it has to ensure cost effectiveness in its operational costs, while maintaining safe operations.
“The need for training and retraining cannot be over emphasised, both in the interest of the employees and of the organisation (whether the regulator or service provider). It is the responsibility of the State, including in the framework of ICAO, to set safety and security training standards. Long-term and continuing labour shortages have been affecting and may continue to affect some of the occupational categories, including cockpit crews and licensed aircraft engineers.
“Training is accomplished to enable technical personnel acquire the necessary knowledge, skill and attitude required to accomplish their assigned tasks. In short, it enables these personnel achieve the required competency to ensure that aircraft are released from maintenance organisations/operators’ facility in an airworthy condition. Therefore when personnel are not provided with adequate training, they will end up becoming hazards to the system they are employed to protect. Training is capital intensive, however the benefits are enormous and far outweigh the associated costs.
“Several approved training organisations with the capability to deliver type courses up to and including ATA 104 Specifications Level III (Line & Base Maintenance Training) are available in the country and aircraft operators should take advantage of such organisations to train their personnel due to proximity and cutting down on travel expenses and capital flights. Pilots, maintenance personnel and the certifying staff must meet the qualification requirements and receive initial, recurrent, and specialised training to their assigned tasks and responsibilities in accordance with a training programme approved by the State of Registry.”
