Aviation workers suspend strike ultimatum
Aviation unions and associations, which threatened to embark on a nationwide strike yesterday, have suspended the action.
This followed a Memorandum of Settlement (MoS) between aviation workers and the Federal Ministry of Aviation.
Both parties signed the agreement at the end of a conciliation meeting held at the conference room of the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige.
They discussed the two demands of the unions, namely: the non-implementation of the Minimum Wage consequential adjustment in Aviation corporations since 2019 and the non-approval/release of the reviewed conditions of service in the parastatals.
Addressing reporters after the meeting, Ngige said the parties agreed 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”.
He added: “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.”
In a statement by the Deputy Director of Press and Public Relations of the ministry, Charles Akpan, the minister said they agreed that those that had exited the system during the period from April 18, 2019, to date, would also be paid the arrears.
“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.”
