By Dickson Omobola
Unions in the air transport sector, Tuesday, defended their decision to picket the country’s largest airline, Air Peace, saying the industrial action was lawful and that they cannot be held responsible for third-party compensation claims by passengers and other parties affected by the disruption.
Last Tuesday, the National Union of Air Transport Employees, NUATE, and the Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, ATSSSAN, backed by the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, and the Trade Union Congress, TUC, picketed Air Peace’s operations at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos, and the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.
The disruption followed a three-day ultimatum issued on August 7 by NUATE and ATSSSAN to the Airline Operators of Nigeria, AON, demanding the remittance of the five per cent Ticket Sales Charge, TSC, and an end to what they described as the continued refusal by some airlines to allow the unfettered unionisation of their workers.
Addressing newsmen at Air Peace’s head office in Lagos the following day, the airline’s Chief Operating Officer, Mrs Oluwatoyin Olajide, said: “Yesterday (last Tuesday) alone, we lost over N2 billion because of what happened. That is aside from compensation for passengers, which is now a third-party liability because the unions will be responsible for that, not Air Peace. They caused what happened.”
Reacting to Olajide’s statement, General Secretary of ATSSSAN, Mr Frances Akinjole, said the unions had no privity of contract with the passengers and therefore could not be held liable.
Akinjole, in a chat with Vanguard, said: “Do we have any contract with any passenger? There is no privity of contract between us and any of their passengers. So, how can we be liable?
“Torts committed during a labour action cannot be taken to court. There is immunity for that. What we did was legitimate and lawful. We issued a 14 days notice, a seven days notice and even magnanimously gave an additional three days.
“Are we the ones to inform their passengers? Are the unions the ones to notify their passengers? Air Peace ignored all these notices and dragged passengers into it. Now, they are saying we will pay third-party liability. We are waiting.”
On claims that Air Peace was specifically targeted, Akinjole said: “How could we have targeted Air Peace? We started with Air Peace. Was it only Air Peace that was anti-union? Any reasonable person would know where we ought to have started. About 16 airlines do not allow industrial democracy in their organisations.
“We started with Air Peace. It could have been another airline the following day, but there was nowhere more appropriate to start than Air Peace because, when we were issuing our notices, it was Air Peace that kept responding, insisting that there was nothing we could do.
“If we juxtapose it with the withholding of the TSC, who is withholding the largest share? It is Air Peace. Air Peace alone owes more than N15 billion out of the total N25 billion. So, where else could we have started? We did what we needed to do. If we had not done it, how would there be sanity now? The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Mr Festus Keyamo, has intervened and given a directive.”
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