By Bisola Adeyemo
The management of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and labour unions in the organisation have agreed on the improvement of the welfare of junior officers from Grade level 1 to 6.
The management also reassured the leadership of the unions that it will maintain the existing agreement reached with the leadership of cooperatives to effect monthly remittances on cooperative deductions.
With the agreement, (FAAN) will from March 2021, begin to be paid along with their salaries and wages their outfit and child education allowances.
Managing Director of (FAAN)Capt Rabiu Hamisu Yadudu who chaired the meeting between the management of (FAAN) and the workers’ unions namely, National Union of Air Transport Employees, (NUATE),Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, (ATSSSAN), Association Nigerian Aviation Professionals, ANAP, and the Nigerian Union of Pensioners, (NUP)
The management also assured the union leaders over the furniture grant which said the payment to staff will continue in April 2021.
Also, the Union leaders were informed that the Admin and Human Resources had concluded plans to conduct the 2021 Promotion Examination on or before the 2nd week of April 2021.
On the unions demand that the Pension Commission, PENCOM, be intimated that staff employed before the 2004 Pension Reform Act, be allowed to retire on Defined Benefit Scheme, (DBS), therefore, the Managing Director/CEO immediately constituted a committee to work out the modality and submit their report by Thursday, 18th March 2021.
It would be recalled that most of these allowances and workers cooperative contributions among others were encumbered since about the middle of last year, 2020, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic which brought travel, especially air transport to its very knees.
As a result of this fact, most governments worldwide designed their measures to assuage the losses suffered in each of the aviation value chains.
Airports, airlines, ground handlers and others in the value chain were given various forms of intervention to assist in the workers’ wage bill, tax holiday, rescheduling of bank loans payment among others.
However, a meagre N5billion was offered to a few operators in the air transport industry. For example, in Nigeria, those who benefited were the airlines, though not all of them, ground handlers, Limousine car hires service providers, among others.
Daily times reports that, Airport operators, both publicly and privately managed, cargo handlers, aviation and airport news publishers and the body that superintends over the aviation and import industry development, the League of Airports and Aviation Correspondents, LAAC, are yet to benefit from any form of palliative despite the death-dealing blows members suffered from the scourge.