The National Union of Air Transport Employees, NUATE says Bicourtney Aviation Service,BASL Manager of the Murtala Mohammed Terminal 2 is playing God in the matters of staff welfare.
Speaking at the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, NAMA stakeholders interactive Forum in Lagos, Secretary General of the Union, Comrade Olayinka Abioye said the demands by the management of the MM2 for the recall of the 24 sacked members of the union and staff of the terminal was laughable.
He noted that Bicourtney with this action was asking for trouble from the union and the refusal to allow industrial democracy to reign in their domain would not be tolerated by the union.
According to him,” workers who willing and freely in accordance with the provisions of the constitution of the country are being denied union membership and when they eventually fill forms for union, they get sacked, a case in point is that Bicourtney and within the next 7 days very serious problem would arise between the union and Bicourtney”.
Abioye noted that the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA midwifed a meeting between Bicourtney and the union to reach an amicable solution in the dispute.
He alleged that in a letter to the NCAA, Bicourtney Management incited in the letter that before the sacked staff are considered for reinstatement for joining the union, the NCAA must compel the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN to handover the General Aviation Terminal one, GAT1 to it.
He added that,” secondly, that NCAA must be compelled to approve regional flights to emanate from its terminal building, these are two external issues that has nothing to do with industrial dispute”.
” To avoid what some industry stakeholders have advised against, the ministry must intervene, nobody is above the law”.
However, in an investigation, a source close to bicourtney said the 24 sacked workers were not laid off because they joined the union but were unfortunate to be among those sacked after their routine assessment of those not performing at optimal level.
The source noted that they were still some members of the unions who were not affected by the sack and still in their employment, adding that the action was not a witch-hunt for filling the union membership form.
He said the union was being over- zealous in the matter and should sit down and carefully analyze the issues on ground before fomenting any trouble that could cause the breach of peace in the industry.
