The Operations of Kenya Airways was yesterday, disrupted by the industry’s union following alleged unilateral sacking of 22 Nigerian workers by the management of the airline.
This is as the unions alleged that the airline smuggled three “deadheaded crew” into the parked aircraft at the tarmac without proper profiling them as required by the law and warned that this may spell doom for the country’s aviation industry.
No fewer than 300 passengers who had planned to travel out of the country on Thursday were affected by the picketing as the airline could not airlift the passengers as a result.
The union, National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE) had stormed the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos as early as 5 a.m, taking over the check-in and profiling counters of the airline, which prevented the staff counters from attending to air travelers.
The unions had purported about two weeks ago that the management of the East African carrier, sacked the 22 Nigerian staff out of 26 without following the Nigerian Labour Act, which stipulated that employers must involve the unions before they could sack their employee.
Comrade Olayinka Abioye, the General Secretary of NUATE while speaking on behalf of the other unions, said that the unions took the picketing as a last resort, stressing that all efforts made in the past to resolve the sack of the workers who the airline declared as redundant failed.
According to him, as the picketing exercise was ongoing, the airline with the connivance of some personnel in the industry, “smuggled” the two aircraft pilots into the tarmac through the arrival hall without profiling them.
Apart from this, he further alleged that 34 of the passengers who booked online without luggage were taken into the aircraft through the same process, stressing that this indicated that the nation’s airports were porous.
He said: “We have been saying it that our airports are too porous. Three people who are usually referred to as deadheaded crew were smuggled into the aircraft through the arrival hall and from there they were moved upstairs to departure lounge into the aircraft without proper screening.
“It is that bad because the company that was to profile the passengers we told them once we took over their counters in the morning that they won’t be allowed to fly. I don’t know where the airline did the profiling of the deadheaded crew for them to gain entrance into the aircraft.”
Mr. Abioye, however, said that the unions had suspended the picketing of the airline following the intervention of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), which said it was ready to mediate on the crisis.
According to him, Capt. Muhtar Usman the Director-General of NCAA, met with the unions through officials of the Consumer Protection Directorate (CPD) and Human Resources.
He explained that a meeting between the two warring organisations has been fixed for next Tuesday at the NCAA’s headquarters at the Murtala Mohammed Airport (MMA), Lagos.
“We were in the exercise when NCAA sent its officials to us from the CPD and later from the human resource department. The DG was before now informed of our plans and the situation on ground, but advised us to follow the law in whatever we do.
“So, NCAA brought a letter to us this afternoon (Thursday), seeking for mediation on the picketing. We are meeting next Tuesday at the agency’s office in Lagos,” he said.
