The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) would be paralysed in the next 14 days by industry unions over what they described as “unnecessary interference” in the running of the agency by the government.
The unions at a congress held on Monday in the Safety House of NCAA of the Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMA), Lagos accused the Minister of State for Aviation, Mr. Hadi Sirika of tampering with the organogram of NCAA and thereby denying some of the workers their right to grow in the system.
Three unions: Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ATSSSAN), National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE) and the Association of Nigeria Aviation Professionals (ANAP) insisted that there was no going back on its plan to picket the regulatory agency in the in the next two weeks if the government did not reverse its decision on the organoram and the planned merger of directorates.
The General Secretary, NUATE, Mr. Ocheme Aba, while addressing the workers said that the unions would resist all attempts by the minister to thwart the development in NCAA.
He alleged that Sirika doctored the agreement of the tripartite committee on the organogram, stressing that the attempt was against the growth of the workers.
The tripartite team, according to Aba, comprised the unions, NCAA management and the government.
He alleged that the new organogram returned to the management was entirely different from what was agreed with the committee, adding that it was skewed against the workers.
He explained further that some of the staff who were due for promotion since 2017 were yet to be promoted because of the obsolete organogram in the agency, stressing that the plan to merge some of the directorates was also illegal.
At present, NCAA has nine directorates; Airworthiness, Licensing Standards, Operations and Training, General Aviation, Aerodrome and Airspace Standards, Finance and Accounts, Consumer Protection, Air Transport Regulations, Legal Services and Human Resources and Administration.
The directorates penciled down for merger were Consumer Protection, Licensing Standards, General Aviation, Aero Medicals and Legal Services.
He said: “There was a tripartite committee on the issue of the organogram of NCAA; the unions, NCAA management and the government , but all of a sudden, when the organogram returned to the management, what was presented to the team was entirely different from what was agreed upon.
“As it is, the organogram of NCAA has been messed up with what the management and the government just did. The unions will follow the due process in its action. We all know that strike or picketing is not a tea party. The staff are requesting for an ultimatum from us here now to ginger the management to take the right step.”
Also, General Secretary, ANAP, Comrade Abdulrazak Saidu said that the unions would resist plan to interfere with the autonomy of NCAA.
He said after the 14 days ultimatum, the unions would picket activities of NCAA, which would affect the entire industry.
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