BREAKING: Relief as aviation workers suspend planned strike

Reprieve came on Tuesday morning as aviation workers’ unions announced the suspension of their planned nationwide industrial action billed to commence today after signing a fresh Memorandum of Settlement (MoS) with the Federal Government.

This was the outcome of a meeting, which was held at the headquarters of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment that started 6pm on Monday and ended Tuesday morning, discussed the two demands of the unions.

The complaints are the non-implementation of the Minimum Wage consequential adjustment in the Aviation Parastatals since 2019 and the non-approval/release of the reviewed conditions of service in the parastatals.

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.”

Ngige said they agreed that those who 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,” he added.

He said the meeting concluded that all the agencies that had not paid the minimum wage allowances should write to the NSIWC through the Ministry of Aviation for consideration/evaluation.

He said the NSIWC promised to process all as soon as possible and consequently, the parties agreed that the consequential adjustment of the New Minimum Wage of 2019 based on the approved government templates should be implemented on or before the end of the first quarter of the year 2022 (March 31, 2022).

He said the meeting charged the management to take more proactive steps to conclude the review of the conditions of service to boost the morale of the workers and retain the best technical staff in the industry.

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.”