Pay disparity: Aviation union shuts down Bristow Helicopters operation in Lagos

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Members of an aviation trade union, National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE), on Thursday shut down the operations of Bristow Helicopters at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the union members shut down the airline for several hours in protest over alleged salary disparity between Nigerian pilots and engineers and their foreign counterparts.

A NAN correspondent, who visited the headquarters of Bristow Helicopters close to the General Aviation Terminal (GAT), Lagos, airport observed that some of the union members were protesting at the gate of the company.

The union members, who chanted various solidarity songs, barred other workers of the airline from entering the company’s premises for several hours.

The General Secretary of the union, Aba Ocheme, NAAPE, later informed aviation correspondents that the strike had been suspended following the intervention of the Ministry of Labour and Productivity.

Mr. Ocheme said the protest would no longer continue on April 1 as earlier planned but added that the issues raised should be adequately addressed.

NAN recalled that NAAPE had threatened to go on strike from March 30 to April 1 over the discriminatory salary and the absence of a condition of service.

In a statement signed by Mr. Ocheme, NAAPE had pointed out that all efforts to correct “these acts of injustice’’ had failed to yield any positive result.

It said: “NAAPE has since offered a proposal to the management which has received an even more unpalatable response.

“Any unbiased third party will easily agree that NAAPE has bent double backwards to show maturity and good faith, and has amply demonstrated restraint and forbearance.

“While we have been playing for time to allow for workable solutions, management has been digging trenches and fortifying their positions.

“While we have been offending our members by showing understanding, management has been degrading our country’s laws by massing up expatriate recruitments, in fragrant disregard to subsisting expatriate quota laws.”