The planned nationwide industrial action of all the associations/unions in the aviation industry, billed to commence on Tuesday, has been suspended.
This was sequel to a Memorandum of Settlement (MOS) reached between the aviation workers and the Federal Ministry of Aviation in the early hours of Tuesday.
It was learnt that both parties signed the agreement at the end of a conciliation meeting held at the instance of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment.
The meeting was presided over by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige.
He discussed about the non-implementation of the Minimum Wage consequential adjustment in the aviation parastatals since 2019 and the non-approval/release of the reviewed conditions of service in the parastatals.
Ngige said, “The National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission was requested to issue a service-wide circular informing all organizations in the public and private sectors that they are bound to implement the National Minimum Wage of 2019/consequential adjustments.
“The Ministry of Aviation is to circulate the circular on the consequential minimum wage adjustment to all the agencies under the supervision of the ministry, requesting them to implement the National Minimum Wage consequential adjustment without any further delay and also clarify that this payment became effective from April 18, 2019, when the Minimum Wage was signed into law.”
Also, The minister added that the parties agreed that those that had exited the system during the period from April 18, 2019, to date would also be paid the arrears.
According to him, “The meeting noted that some categories of workers in the aviation sector attract some peculiar allowances, which are not extended to others and stated that those salary structures that are not captured in the Memorandum of Terms of Settlement signed and dated 9th, 14th, 15th 16th, 17th and 18th October 2019 between the Federal Government and organized labour on the consequential adjustment of the other wages, would attract consequential adjustment as agreed during the negotiations of the Federal Government with the labour centres -The Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria in October 2019.”
He said the meeting concluded that all the agencies that had not paid the minimum wage allowances should write to the NSIWC through the Ministry of Aviation for consideration/evaluation.
According to him, the NSIWC promised to process all as soon as possible and consequently, the parties agreed that the consequential adjustment of the New Minimum Wage of 2019 based on the approved government templates should be implemented on or before the end of the first quarter of the year 2022 (March 31, 2022).
Regarding the non-approval/release of the reviewed conditions of service (CoS) of the agencies under the Aviation Ministry, Ngige said they noted that the issue was a protracted one, having been ongoing for about nine years.
He said the meeting charged the management to take more proactive steps to conclude the review of the conditions of service to boost the morale of the workers and retain the best technical staff in the industry.
A statement by the labour ministry spokesman, Charles Akpan, said the meeting agreed that by the end of the first quarter of 2022, the aviation ministry should ensure the approval, release and implementation of the renewed CoS for all the workers in the agencies under the ministry.
“In view of the above, the seven-day ultimatum issued for a planned industrial action effective February 8, 2022, is hereby suspended,” it stated.