STRIKE BY AVIATION UNIONS HAS BEEN SUSPENDED

STRIKE BY AVIATION UNIONS HAS BEEN SUSPENDED

After signing a new Memorandum of Settlement (MoS) with the federal government on Tuesday morning, the aviation unions and industry’s groups halted their planned nationwide strike that was set to begin today.

The two demands of the unions were discussed at a meeting held at the headquarters of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment from around 6 p.m. on Monday to early Tuesday morning.

The non-implementation of the Minimum Wage Consequential Adjustment in Aviation Parastatals since 2019 and the parastatals’ failure to approve/release the reviewed conditions of service are the complaints.

Briefing journalists after the meeting, Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, said after exhaustive deliberations on the issues which the parties agreed as germane, they resolved that:

“The National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission (NSIWC), was requested 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.

“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 and also clarify that this payment became effective from April 18, 2019, when the Minimum Wage was signed into law.”

They decided, according to Ngige, that those who left the system between April 18, 2019, and now would be paid the arrears.

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“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 (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria in October 2019,” he added.

According to him, the meeting concluded that all agencies that had not paid the minimum salary allowances should write to the NSIWC for consideration/evaluation through the Ministry of Aviation.

According to him, the NSIWC pledged to process everything as soon as possible, and as a result, the parties agreed that the New Minimum Wage of 2019 should be implemented on or before the end of the first quarter of 2022, based on the approved government templates (March 31, 2022).

The meeting, he added, urged management to take more proactive actions to complete the evaluation of employee conditions of employment in order to enhance worker morale and retain the top technical staff in the business.

Ngige said: “The meeting was informed that the financial implication of the conditions of service (CoS) for Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) has been approved by the Presidential Committee on Salaries (PCS), hence the whole process for NIMET has been concluded except for hazard allowances, which would be reconsidered by the NSIWC on a sectoral level. Hence, the NSIWC is to release this approved CoS immediately.

“The meeting however noted that the CoS for Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) and Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) require establishment input and directed the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation to update the Ministry of Aviation on this aspect of their CoS by Friday, February 11, 2022 and copy the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment.

“The meeting agreed that the financial aspect of NAMA and NCAA would be resolved by the PCS by the third week of February 2022.

“The meeting was also informed that the CoS for Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has been released since 2019.

“There are however establishment issues which have been observed and will be forwarded to the Federal Ministry of Aviation by the Management of FAAN for transmission to the OHCSF for urgent action.”