By Kelvin Osa-Okunbor
THE National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE) has issued a two-week ultimatum to airlines which have sacked or plans to sack their pilots and engineers under the guise of COVID-19 pandemic.
The association had mandated such organisations to reverse the decision or they would withdraw their services to airlines nationwide.
This is just as the association has tackled Bristow Helicopters for its sack of 100 pilots and engineers.
NAAPE said some of the carriers are economical with the truth as they operated throughout the lockdown, servicing the oil and gas sector.
NAAPE President, Comrade Abednego Galadinma made these known at a press conference at Airport Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos.
It would be recalled that there had been a spate of terminations of contracts of pilots and engineers across various airlines reaching 170 so far from Bristow Helicopters and Air Peace all linked to the pandemic.
However, NAAPE has called the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority ( NCAA) to, as a matter of urgency, prevail on these airlines to stop the sacking.
The NAAPE chief said:”We demand that Bristow and Air Peace should immediately recall all sacked pilots and aircraft engineers until all labour issues are resolved or be grounded by NCAA because of attendant safety concerns created by their action.
“As a result of the known consequences of these illegal actions and our commitment to patriotic fervour, we shall be forced to withdraw our guarantee of industrial peace within the industry if this call is not heeded within two weeks.
”Our union will be left with no other option but to withdraw the services of pilots and aircraft maintenance engineers across all the airlines.’’
Responding to questions, the NAAPE president discountenanced the Bristow statement which indicated that the termination of their 100 pilots and engineers would affect both Nigerians and expatriates stating that it was just a ploy to get rid of Nigerians.
”To say the 100 pilots and engineers are not only our members is unsubstantiated and we do not know this because the management did not engage us.
“Operators especially Bristow Helicopters have rendered our members redundant despite assurances by government of support for their businesses in return for operators not laying off staff.
“These operators are already running on lean manpower with disproportionate number being expatriates yet, without regards to our expatriates and local content laws and executive order (5) they gave gone ahead to lay off staff under the guise of COVID-19 pandemic.”
“And they cannot be using COVID-19 as an excuse because the cessation of flight operations did not affect essential services like the oil and gas and Bristow and Caverton were operating during the lockdown. In fact you’d recall that our members were held by the Rivers State Government during the lockdown, so how can they be using COVID-19 as an excuse.
”it is on record that Bristow Helicopters operated throughout the lockdown supporting oil and gas operations with government approval and guarantees service contracts in the same national interest but are now using COVID-19 to force redundancy on our members.
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