Lagos Airport workers end strike over sacking of staff by Bi-Courtney

The strike by the Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria against Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Limited over the dismissal of 34 union members was put to an end on Wednesday.

This was contained in a statement given by Mr. Frances Akinjole, the union’s deputy general secretary, on Wednesday in Lagos.

The MMA2 terminal was closed on Tuesday by the ATSSSAN members, who blocked both the entry and departure gates, preventing travelers from entering the airport.

The affected union members were allegedly unlawfully fired by the company’s management without due process, and the union was requesting their reinstatement or payment.

As a result of the face-off, several passengers were forced to miss their flight due to the actions of the union.

In his statement, Akinjole said that the union ended the strike following the intervention of the Ministry of Labour & Employment, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, the Federal Airport Authority, the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency and other airport security agencies at a meeting in Lagos.

“The strike that was embarked upon on Nov. 1 against the Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Limited, has been called off pursuant the acceptance by the company to recall the laid off members of our union and an undertaking to pay their salaries.

Read also:Bi-Courtney refutes Minister’s claim of N14bn debt, says FAAN owes it N200bn

“The agreement was reached at a meeting empaneled by the Ministry of Labour & Employment, NCAA, FAAN, NAMA and airport security agencies,” he said in the statement.

Earlier, a statement from Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Limited (BASL), the operator of Murtala Muhammed Airport Terminal 2 (MMA2), denounced the aviation workers union’s disruption of services at the terminal.

The statement was released on Tuesday in Lagos by Mr. Oluwatosin Onalaja, Head of Corporate Communications.

In the statement, Onalaja claimed that the union had not given enough warning before beginning its action.

He claimed that the move was a complete violation of Nigerian law and ran counter to established standards of industrial relations.

“The union brought in members who are not employees of Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Limited (BASL) to prevent the employees of BASL from working.

“This is also an unlawful action and our relationship is with union members that are our employees and not external members, so this is clearly an illegal action and continues to set a bad precedent in Nigeria.

“The alleged cause of this industrial action is our decision to lay off some of our staff who we consider unproductive.

“It is our inherent right to manage our business in the most prudent manner and we should not be intimidated by external forces as is being done in this case,” he said.

Onalaja stated that the unions wanted the corporation to retroactively apply the conditions of service that it signed in June 2021, stressing that this was against both Nigerian law and the accepted principles of industrial relations.

He said that by continuously interfering with the terminal’s operations, the union had disobeyed the court ruling imposed by the National Industrial Court on October 31.

Onalaja apologized on behalf of the company for any difficulty that the union’s actions may have caused consumers and other stakeholders.

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