Nigeria: Union Gives Ultimatum to Airlines Over Pilots' Sack
By Chinedu Eze
The National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE) has issued a two-week ultimatum and threatened to withdraw the services of its members in the airlines that have sacked or plan to sack pilots and engineers in their employment recently.
NAAPE also tackled Bristow Helicopters for the lay-off of over 100 pilots and engineers due to the COVID-19 pandemic, alleging that the companies lied that it didn't operate during the lockdown.
The president of NAAPE, Mr. Abednego Galadinma, made these known to newsmen, saying pilots and engineers have resolved to withdraw services of pilots and aircraft maintenance engineers across all airlines.
The body has also called the attention of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to as a matter of urgency prevail on the airlines to stop the unilateral sacking of pilots and engineers.
The NAAPE president said: "We demand that Bristow and Air Peace should immediately recall all sacked pilots and aircraft engineers until all labour issues are resolved or be grounded by NCAA because of attendant safety concerns created by their action.
"As a result of the known consequences of these illegal actions and our commitment to patriotic fervour, we shall be forced to withdraw our guarantee of industrial peace within the industry if this call is not heeded within two weeks. Our union will be left with no other option but to withdraw the services of pilots and aircraft maintenance engineers across all the airlines."
The NAAPE president discountenanced the Bristow statement, which indicated that the termination of their 100 pilots and engineers would affect both Nigerians and expatriates, insisting that it was just a ploy to get rid of Nigerians.
"To say the 100 pilots and engineers are not only our members is unsubstantiated and we do not know this because the management did not engage us.
"Operators especially Bristow Helicopters have rendered our members redundant despite assurances by government of support for their businesses in return for operators not layoff of staff.
"These operators are already running on lean manpower with disproportionate number being expatriates yet, without regards to our expatriates and local content laws and executive order (5) they have gone ahead to lay off staff under the guise of COVID-19 pandemic."
"And they cannot be using COVID-19 as an excuse because the cessation of flight operations did not affect essential services like the oil and gas and Bristow and Caverton were operating during the lockdown. In fact you'd recall that our members were held by the Rivers State Government during the lockdown, so how can they be using COVID-19 as an excuse. It is on record that Bristow Helicopters operated throughout the lockdown, supporting oil and gas operations with government approval and guarantees service contracts in the same national interest but are now using COVID-19 to force redundancy on our members," he added.
This article originally appeared on This Day
Photo: The Guardian Nigeria