The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, has strongly condemned and rejected the sack of 100 Pilots by Air Peace and 69 Pilots by Bristow Helicopters, stating that the airlines have just two weeks to recall the sacked workers or face industrial unrest.
Recall that the management of Air Peace had announced that it sacked some of its pilots and supporting staff across its fleet while slashing staff salaries by up to 40 percent due to the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Barely 24 hours after the announcement, the management of Bristow Helicopters also announced the sack of over 100 pilots and engineers in its company.
Reacting to this development, the NLC President, Ayubba Wabba, in a statement described the sack of the workers by the airlines as insensitive, callous, and unjust.
It also condemned the sack of the executives of National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE) working with Turkish Air.
The statement said, “We call on the management of Turkish Air, Air Peace and Bristow Helicopters to recall all the workers that are being sacked from its company within two weeks.
“As agreed between labour and Employers’ Association, social dialogue should be used to resolve industrial concerns instead of the current resort to unilateralism.
“It is very traumatic for workers who are still recovering from psychological and socio-economic difficulties imposed by the recent coronavirus pandemic and are just savoring the joy of being able to work again to be slammed with sack letters.
“Also we would like to make it known that we will not hesitate to mobilize the weight of the entire Nigerian workforce to the premises of Turkish Air, Air Peace and Bristow Helicopters if our demands are not met.”