Aviation Workers Call Off Planned Nationwide Strike, Give Reason

Following an agreement with the Federal Government, aviation workers have suspended their planned nationwide strike.

Naija News reports that the workers had fixed today (Tuesday) for the commencement of the strike over the non-implementation of the Minimum Wage consequential adjustment in the aviation parastatals since 2019 and the non-approval/release of the reviewed conditions of service in the parastatals.

In a joint statement on Tuesday, the associations and unions in the aviation industry said the industrial action has been suspended after a fruitful meeting with the government.

The workers said they have signed a Memorandum of Settlement (MoS) with the Ministry of Aviation in the early hours of Tuesday and await the implementation of the document.

Earlier, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, had facilitated a conciliation meeting in order to avert the nationwide strike.

Speaking with journalists after the meeting, Ngige said the government and the workers have agreed on some terms and will begin to address some of the agreements.

Ngige said the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission (NSIWC) has been asked 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.

He said that 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.

The minister added that the ministry should also clarify that this payment became effective from April 18, 2019, when the Minimum Wage was signed into law.

Ngige said the parties also agreed that those that had exited the system during the period from April 18, 2019, to date would also be paid the arrears.

He said: “The meeting noted that some categories of workers in the aviation sector attract some peculiar allowances, which are not extended to others and stated that those salary structures that are not captured in the Memorandum of Terms of Settlement signed and dated 9th, 14th, 15th 16th, 17th and 18th October 2019 between the Federal Government and organised labour on the consequential adjustment of the other wages, would attract consequential adjustment as agreed during the negotiations of the Federal Government with the labour centres -The Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria in October 2019.”

He said the meeting concluded that all the agencies that had not paid the minimum wage allowances should write to the NSIWC through the Ministry of Aviation for consideration.

Regarding the non-approval of the reviewed conditions of service of the agencies under the aviation ministry, Ngige said they noted that the issue was a protracted one and has been ongoing for about nine years.

He said the meeting charged the management to take more proactive steps to conclude the review of the conditions of service to boost the morale of the workers and retain the best technical staff in the industry.