Barely three months after Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Limited (BASL), operators of Murtala Muhammed Airport Two (MMA2), Lagos declared over 30 workers redundant, following their decision to join any industry unions, the terminal operator has commenced payment to the affected workers.
Also, it seems the picketing of the terminal for almost a week by the unions may have consumed Capt. Jari Williams, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) as it has been learnt that he and some top management staff had been removed by the management.
However, out of the over 30 workers declared redundant by the company in September, only 29 of them were on Thursday issued cheques with different amount of money, depending on the years of working with the company and their positions as at the time of the crisis.
Comrade Illitrus Ahmadu, the President of Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ATSSSAN) also confirmed the development in an interview with our correspondent.
According to Ahmadu, the unions was able to negotiate the redundancy package for their members affected by the exercise with the company, but noted that some of the affected staff equally picked up letters for unionism after their disengagement from the company.
For those set of people, he said the unions could not protect them because as at the time they joined, they were already disengaged from the company.
He said: “I can confirm to you that our affected members in BASL are presently receiving their packages from the company. We were able to negotiate disengagement package for them after they were declared redundant by the company.”
It would be recalled that the industry unions had grounded activities at MMA2 for almost a week after issuing several picketing notice to the management, which were ignored.
The unions also jointly signed a petition, which was sent to the management of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) against the management.
The petition had said that with the notice, BASL was expected to reinstate all members of staff sacked arbitrarily, allow for unfettered unionisation of all interested members of staff in consonance with the applicable laws of Nigeria and meet with industrial unions to fashion the way forward as social partners in the industry.
On its own, the terminal operator had accused NCAA of bias against it and demanded for the return of the General Aviation Terminal (GAT) before it could allow the workers to return to its fold, a demand the unions kicked against.