Aviation Union Urges FG to Remove  Anti-labor Provisions From Aviation Statutes

The Federal Government has been given a 14-day deadline by aviation unions to remove what they claim are anti-labour provisions from newly modified aviation statutes.

The unions claim that provisions incorporated into the proposals allow the Minister of Aviation and the authority to make decisions that significantly impact trade unions in the sector.

They urged the Federal Government to do away with the clauses, emphasising that they were an effort to silence and restrain the unions.

One of the clauses reads, “All services which facilitate and maintain the smooth, orderly and safe take-off, flight and landing of aircraft, embarkation and disembarkation and evacuation of passengers and cargo respectively in all aerodromes in Nigeria are hereby designated as essential services pursuant to the provisions of Section 11(1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as altered).

“The Minister may by regulations, prohibit all or such class or classes of workers, officers and other employees or persons whether corporate or natural, engaged in the provision of services specified in subsection (1) of this section from taking part in a strike or other industrial action.”

The terms, according to the unions, violated international labour standards and usurped the Ministry of Labor’s authority.

The employees organised peaceful demonstrations in a few airports around the nation to vent their complaints and forward their demands for the “expunging of offensive essential services clause from the Bills/Acts of the Aviation Agencies.”

Some were carrying signs urging the President not to sign the laws. Other signs read, among other things, “Our voices must be heard” and “Prohibiting Aviation Union activity is terrible.”

Ocheme Aba, the general secretary of the National Union of Air Transport Employees, stated that the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) classification of aviation workers as essential services personnel conflicts with the demonstration in Lagos.

According to him, the transportation industry does not fall under the essential services category, which includes individuals withdrawing from duties that endanger lives.

Only those working in the air traffic control services, in his opinion, are necessary due to their role as advisors to aircraft in flight.

He claimed that to buck the nasty trend that aims to silence aviation workers, aviation unions have supported the Nigerian Labour Congress and Trade Union Congress.