Chinedu Eze
The Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ATSSSAN) has expressed anger over the manner Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Limited (BASL), operators of the domestic terminal, Murtala Muhammed Airport Two (MMA2), Lagos, allegedly sacked 34 of its workforce.
The union alleged that the workers were sacked last Friday, with “ordinary e-mails” sent to their different boxes with disregard to the rule of law after they were first sent on compulsory leave of absence for 10 days.
The Vice President and Deputy General Secretary of ATSSSAN, Emmanuel Jaja and Frances Akinjole, respectively told aviation journalists at the union secretariat at the Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMA), Lagos, yesterday, that most of those laid off had worked with the company for at least a decade.
Akinjole emphasised that the action was to witch-hunt its members working with the terminal operator, stressing that its branch chairman, branch secretary, branch treasurer and branch women leader were all affected by the sack.
He said the action of the management contravened Section 20 of the Labour Act on engagement and disengagement of staff by any company in the country, maintaining that the union would kick severely against the act of the management.
According to Akinjole, since the terminal operator “grudgingly” accepted that its staff could join the unions, the company had continued to intimidate its members.
He explained that the union had on June 16, 2021 concluded the signing of the staff Conditions of Service (CoS) for its members in Bi-Courtney, after a prolonged negotiation with the management, which spanned about three years.
He also explained that after the execution of the CoS document, a female member of the union resigned her appointment with the BASL when she could no longer condone the intimidation, and presentation of a cheque for her terminal benefits, which she rejected, became an issue.
He explained that BASL management had used historical (year by year) computation to calculate her exit pay instead of the expected last salary, lamenting that the rejected cheque denied the beneficiary to the tune of about N3,000,000.00.
He maintained that Section 1.12 of the Conditions of Service provides two months’ basic salary per year to be paid to any worker who resigns his or her appointment.
He said, “We have seven executive members in BASL and out of these numbers, four of our executives were issued sack letters. These four people sacked were key members of our union. In all, 37 people were sacked with 34 of them being our members.
“When the same management did a similar thing in 2018, we sacrificed 29 of our members through an uncommon ugly redundancy arrangement. The fallout of the crisis was the grudging acceptance of unionism into the BASL by their management. Series of intimidation of union members has continued in the company.
“We are not out to destroy any company because we are supposed to be partners in progress. We are also not against employers doing whatever they want to do with employers, but as unions, we should be involved in their downsizing, rightsizing or redundancy exercise as it affects our members.”
Also speaking, Jaja said most of those sacked by the company had been in service of BASL before the coming of unions into the company in 2018.
Jaja insisted that their sack did not follow the rule of law, stressing that BASL had the penchant for disregarding the law of the land.
