The federal government has called for social dialogue between the employers and the employees in the aviation industry to prevent job losses.
The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, made the call in a statement, signed by the deputy director, press and public relations in the ministry, Mr. Charles Akpna, in the ministry on Friday in Abuja.
Ngige made the call during a conciliatory meeting with airline operators and the trade unions in the aviation industry to discuss contentious issues especially pay cuts and sacking of workers.
He appealed to them to join hands to make sure there were no job losses in the industry, noting that “the cardinal principle of this administration is to prevent job losses.”
“The government on its part will honour its obligation to the industry by providing palliatives in the form of tax reduction, tax exemption, and elimination of custom duties on aircraft spares and logistics.
“The Central Bank of Nigeria will also provide stimulus package to encourage the operators in the industry,” he said.
Ngige, however, commended the efforts of the airline operators, especially Air Peace and Bristow Helicopters, in keeping faith and paying the salaries and allowances of their staff, when necessary, for the period of the Covid-19 pandemic.
He urged the operators to allow their employees exercise their rights to unionisation as Section 40 of Nigerian Constitution guarantees that.
“We encourage the airline operators to allow members of staff who desire to go into unions to do so, as belonging to unions is a voluntary thing.
“Obstructing them from doing so is to curtail their fundamental rights as enshrined in our Constitution.”
The minister also said on Bristow Helicopters, 90 – 95 per cent of the issues had already been resolved through social dialoguing.
“We understand the plight of the employers, being that the volume of work in that organisation has dwindled, from 50 aircraft business to an all-time low of 12 aircraft. We appeal to both management and workers to dialogue with human face in order to save jobs.”
On the pay cut by Arik Air, as well as the disagreement on terminal benefits for workers, Ngige directed the management of the airline to engage the employees on social dialoguing in order to come up with a mutually agreed remuneration.
