The Nigerian Labour Congress has issued an ultimatum to major airlines operating in the country to reinstate sacked workers or face the full wrath of the labour union.
NLC issued the ultimatum to Air Peace, Bristow Helicopters and Turkish Airlines through a statement by its president, comrade Ayuba Wabba on Friday.
The airlines had announced a major cut in jobs due to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on the aviation industry. Air Peace announced the sack of at least 22 pilots while Bristow announced the sack of 100 pilots and engineers. Before the job cuts, major industry players had appealed to the Federal Government to bail out airlines in distress because of the coronavirus.
The NLC said on Friday that sacking the workers was an insensitive move on the part of the airlines given the present economic realities occasioned by the coronavirus pandemic.
“NLC condemns and rejects the recent sack of 100 pilots by Air Peace, 69 pilots by Bristow Helicopters and the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE) executives working with Turkish Air.”
“We call on the management of Turkish Airlines, Air Peace and Bristow Helicopters to reinstate all the sacked workers within two weeks. It is very traumatic for workers, who are still reeling from psychological and socio-economic difficulties imposed by the recent lockdown measures and are just savouring the joy of being able to work again, to be slammed with sack letters.”
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During the good times, workers were the hands that created the profit and wealth. During bad times, we expect businesses to repay the faith and commitment of the workforce.
“Clearly, we have a bumpy road ahead of us as the nation and the world recovers from the fallout of COVID-19. Workers are ready to play their part towards the restoration of full productivity and industrial normalcy but that can only be achieved in an atmosphere of mutual respect and sensitivity. Nothing else would suffice.