News: Union Kicks Against Plans by Foreign Airlines to Sack 2,000 Workers

Aviation union under the auspices of the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), on Monday, kicked against plans by foreign airlines to sack about two thousand (2,000) workers in the aviation industry in a bid to cut cost.

In a letter addressed to the Minister of State for Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika and made available to newsmen, Acting General Secretary of NUATE, Comrade Olayinka Abioye stressed that the plan was posing a great threat to the affected workers, adding that the Federal Government should wade in and prevent the huge job loss.

Comrade Abioye said that information had filtered into the aviation industry of the massive reduction in the numbers of its employees to the tune of about 2,000 workers.

"The reason being adduced for this danger is that their earnings in the past year is under lock with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), as they are unable to transfer these earnings to their respective home countries to meet operational costs in accordance with international rules."

"Following concerns raised recently by leaders of these workers and other stakeholders and in appreciation of the good intent of the government's fiscal policy, we humbly make this clarion call for your intervention to grant foreign airlines concession to repatriate their proceeds to their home countries," he said.

Comrade Abioye pointed out that should the foreign airlines go ahead with the sacking of the workers in the aviation industry, it would not be in the interest of the aviation sector and Nigeria as a whole.

"We hasten to place on the front burner an emerging threat confronting over 2, 000 private sector aviation workers in Nigeria which requires your intervention to forestall imminent loss of jobs of these number of workers," said Abioye.

Source: Vanguard