President of the Air Transport Senior Staff Services Association of Nigeria, John Ogbe has urged management of government agencies, companies, and organisations operating in the country’s aviation sector to collaborate and engage in fruitful discussions with workers’ unions to ensure that their operations and activities are no longer disrupted.
He said ATSSSAN, which is largely made up of senior management staff, takes a lot of caution in their actions in dealing with management, stating that the body is open to initiatives that will support the growth of the companies in the industry.
The ATSSSAN President spoke during a courtesy visit by the National Executive to the management of the Nigeria Aviation Handling Company (Nahco) where he declared that as social partners to organisations, the workers are part of the critical stakeholders and the oil that rolls the wheels that create production.
He urged better welfare conditions for staff affirming that the global current economic crunch is affecting workers in the country adding that the value of the country’s currency is getting eroded daily and encouraged management to increase workers’ wages.
Ogbe said “We want to support businesses. Our stand is basically very collaborative. As senior management staff, we try to understand with management why recruiting our workers first. We understand too that we cannot over-unionise the system thereby killing the business. We look at the numbers”
“We are your social partners so the apprehension that unions always come for disruptions will not suffice with adequate collaborations between the unions and companies in the industry.”
While commending Nahco for its policies on staff welfare, Ogbe said “When there are issues, we are open to discussions, we also want you to trust our local branches, we trust them to deal with management. They are not here to truncate or disrupt businesses.”
According to him “It is very important for us for businesses to survive in the aviation industry. We understand how your services are very critical to the survival of other service providers. So, we are not ready to disrupt or truncate that process.”
He further commended the company for its investment in equipment and training for staff saying that the development is impressive.
“It is very important, when you have efficient work tools, it reduces pressures on the workers and the investment in this is something that we commend Nahco on, and as we say we are open to partnership.”
“The union is not averse to training; there is no end to training so you must continue to train your workers. We encourage you to continue training and when you pay them well, they will not want to go anywhere. We commend the security and continuity of jobs here in Nahco.”
Speaking on behalf of Nahco, Group Executive Director, Corporate Services, Dr. Peter Olusola Obabori disclosed that the management has scheduled a meeting with unions to discuss its staff welfare for Wednesday April 1st.
Whilst he congratulated the new ATSSSAN president, he affirmed that “We know that the major concern for the unions is to make sure staff wages are fair. Serious work done, fair wages to go with it. And the benefits that the staff will get.
If you look at Nahco you will see that Nahco is a fair organisation in terms of wages and treatment of staff, and in terms of other benefits that surround the working environment, we are also very fair. And we are pushing for more.”
Dr. Obabori said “We have various incentives that are performance-based bonuses, profits, shares for staff, these are a major chunk of cash that goes into the accounts of the staff. Though all these don’t come at once as salary, some of them come at a certain time of the year. We put various palliative measures in place at any point in time we notice a change in the country’s economy just to ensure our staff is not adversely affected.”
“We are also looking at the current global economic turmoil to ensure that its impact does not affect our staff too much.”
The GED disclosed that “Issues of safety and working conditions of staff are very dear to our hearts. We have also acquired equipment worth over 20 million dollars to ensure our staff has the right equipment to work. That has brought about a growth in revenue and profit for the company.”
He also disclosed that due to adequate training of its workforce, about 20 staff of Nahco have left the company to work with Qatar Airways in Doha.
He advised the staff of the company to key into the company’s policy that enables them to become co-share owners of the company.
According to him, the “Company’s share which sold for N4 four years ago has jumped to N170 in today’s value. There are opportunities within the company to be rich if you open your eyes well and make the right investment, please don’t miss that opportunity. Please even as it is now start investing in your company, you cannot lose money.” Obabori urged the staff.
Discover more from Ameh News
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
