Aviation unions ask Aero Contractors to resume operations

Aviation unions under the aegis of the Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ATSSAN) and the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), have called on the management of Aero Contractors to resume its operations or face total shutdown of the company by tomorrow.

Speaking at the headquarters of the firm at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos, General Secretary of NUATE, Comrade Olayinka Abioye, stressed that if by tomorrow, the management of Aero Contractors fails to open the company for the workers to resume work, the unions will shut the firm.

Abioye pointed out that the action of the firm’s management was a breach of trust and an embarrassment to both the Federal Government and the workers, adding that the unions and the management had been negotiating over its plan to sack about 467 workers.

Aero Contractors a few days ago suspended its operations in a bid to reposition the airline for better services and profitability.

The NUATE General Secretary said:” My attention was drawn to a seaming lock out in Aero Contractors this morning and on getting here, I have just noticed that the management locked out the entire workers of the company and locked in those who did night duty, they can’t go home, this is a violation of the rights of workers of Aero Contractors”

“Aero was under a receivership, the unions and management have been discussing arising from management intention to declare 467 workers redundant, we have been negotiating and as much efforts that we have put into that negotiation, nothing seems to be coming from Aero Contractors, you can imagine a situation where somebody who has worked for 15 years will be given half a month’s pay as severance benefits for those numbers of years and such little benefits cannot even be paid until about nine months later, that is the proposal the management threw at the union and we said that it is an unsellable market”

We have been to the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment in Abuja and the management of Aero was specifically advised to go back to the drawing board and do the needful, even if we are liquidating Aero Contractors today, workers who have served here are entitled to their severance benefits, that is what the law says, both national law and international convention, but Aero Contractors want to eat its cake and have it which is not possible” he stressed.