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N’Assembly directs Sirika to halt agencies’ office demolition, charges workers to end strike

  • Industrial action frequency worries lawmakers

 

The National Assembly joint committees on Aviation headed by Senator Christine Olujumi and Nnolim Nnaji have directed the Minister of Aviation Hadi Sirika to halt the planned demolition of the offices of the aviation agencies in Lagos.

The directive followed the two-day warning strike embarked on by aviation workers’ unions which crippled flight operations across the country on Monday and Tuesday.

National Assembly, Abuja

In a letter jointly signed by the clerks of the committees and dated April 18, 2023, the two chairmen of the aviation committees expressed concerns over the frequency of industrial actions and the attendant disruption of flight operations in the country.

They noted that most of the issues causing the agitations were not new and wondered why they had continued to linger stressing that some of them have been in contention for years.

The letter also directed the Minister to furnish the committees with all the documents pertaining to the sundry issues raised by the workers which include non-implementation of the consequential adjustment to national minimum wage by some of the agencies as agreed in February 2022, non-release of the reviewed condition of service by the relevant government agencies for about a decade.

They noted that the continuous threats of outright demolition of the aviation agencies, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, (FAAN), Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority,  (NCAA), and the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency,  (NAMA) headquarters without alternative provisions for their regional offices was not acceptable.

“The letter reads in parts, ” In order to prevent further escalation of the crisis as envisaged by the failure of the federal Ministry of Aviation to address the issues within this warning strike  period, we are directed to request that you furnish the committees with the following information:

  1. Comprehensive details of all issues under contention
  2. actions taken by the Ministry and its agencies to address the grievances of the workers

iii . Challenges in implementing the various agreements reached with unions

  1. any other documents that are germane to the subject matter.
Nigeria’s Aviation Minister, Hadi Sirika

Meanwhile, the chairmen of the committees of both Chambers have also implored the unions to shelve any more actions that will further prevent the smooth running of the sector, promising that their grievances would be duly addressed soonest.

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