Fresh indications have revealed that the over 1,500 employees sent on compulsory leave without pay, by Arik Air are yet to be recalled.
Chairman of the Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, Innocent Atasie lamented the impact of the unpaid leave in an interview with our correspondent
He said, “The issue of recalling of Arik workers is still lingering. Majority of them are still at home.”
Recall that the National Union of Air Transport Employees and the Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria had on September 14th shutdown the airline over alleged non-payment of staff salaries since April, hundreds of passengers were stranded in the process.
They claimed that the non-payment started after the company placed 90 per cent of the workforce on compulsory leave and other “anti-labour practices”.
Their demands included payment of outstanding salaries arrears, signing of Conditions of Service, remittance of Pension, Tax, and statutory deductions to the appropriate authorities, and to resolve other anti-labour issues.
Immediately after that encounter, a mediatory meeting scheduled by the Nigerian Civil Aviation with representatives of the Ministry of Labour and Aviation was called.
Atasie said the issue of terminal benefits has not sorted in the meeting as well as better Conditions of Service.
He said, “We could not agree last week Wednesday. There was a major meeting held by NCAA, the Ministry of Labour and Aviation were all represented. After that meeting, we thought that everything had been resolved until we came for a Thursday meeting and we heard something else.
“We decided to suspend the meeting and reconvene the meeting on Wednesday this week. We hope the matter will be sorted out by Wednesday. The item remaining is the terminal benefits and Conditions of Service.”
Meanwhile, the airline has leased a Boeing 737-700 aircraft from Eznis Airways to boost its operations. The aircraft arrived Nigeria on November 21, 2020.
The leased aircraft will be deployed into service from December 2, 2020 to enable Arik Air return to some routes which were suspended at the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
