The Joint Aviation Unions that embarked on industrial action on Wednesday to press home their demands, have called off their strike after reaching an agreement with the Nigerian government.
The unions are the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ATSSSAN), National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE) and Association of Nigerian Aviation Professionals (ANAP).
The unions are demanding among other things, the review of the staff conditions of service, returning to the original organogram of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and the inauguration of the board of the authority.
The leadership of the unions went into closed door meeting with the Minister of State for Aviation, Sen. Hadi Sirika, and at the end of the meeting that lasted for about three hours, and agreements were signed to resolve the issues amicably.
The National of President of ATSSSAN, Mr. Illustrious Ahmadu, who spoke on behalf of the unions, said that agreements were reached with the minister, who promised to look into demands.
He said that the minister had promised to look into their demands with the view to addressing them as quickly as possible.
“On the condition of service, he promised to personally visit the National Salaries and Wages Commission to push for its approval.
“He has also assured us of the government’s readiness to constitute a committee to look into the issue of organogram within seven day.
“We are going back to Lagos tomorrow to inform our people of the agreement we have reached and call off the strike,” he said.
In his remarks, Sirika also said that he had promised to look into all the demands put forward by the union.
He expressed his commitment to ensuring that all issues were resolved as soon as possible.
He said the issue of non-conformity with the act on the appointment of the board for NCAA would be looked into to ensure that the board was constituted.
“On the conditions of service, which is outside the purview of the ministry, I have volunteered to go myself to salaries and wages to try to hasten the process.
“On the issue of organogram which is the crux of the matter, we have agreed to set up a committee to work out the best acceptable way to all of us.
“The committee will not be lopsided, we will have them in the committee so that we can look at it because there were some things that went wrong,” he said.
MM/GIK/APA