No fewer than 982 former workers of the now privatized Skypower Aviation Handling Company Limited (SAHCOL) are spoiling for war with the federal government over the failure to pay their N1.8bn severance package 12 years after the privatization exercise.
They stated this following a communication from the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) that the payment was being delayed due to its compulsory contribution to the Treasury Single Account (TSA).
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The bureau is however appealing for understanding, assuring that it is working assiduously to resolve the issue.
Daily Trust reports that SAHCOL, which has now transformed to Skyway Aviation Handling Company PLC, was handed over to Sifax Group in December 2009, after its successful privatisation by the federal government.
However since the privatization, the former workers are still in the trenches fighting for their entitlements.
They staged a protest at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport last year, saying most of their members are dying without being paid their entitlements.
Amidst the delay in the payment, the BPE in a letter addressed to the General Secretary of the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), Comrade Ocheme Aba, said its contribution to TSA had stalled payment of the money in line with the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) reached with the former workers in 2018.
The letter signed by the Director for Post Transaction Management, Mr Taibudeen Oduniyi, was dated October 11, 2022 with reference number: BPE/PTM/NUATE/11/2022/M10.01.
The bureau also said it had written to the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zaynab Ahmed, to approve fund for the settlement of the former workers without success.
The letter reads in part: “In the light of the foregoing, it has become expedient to update you on our modest efforts to bridge communication gap from the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) we signed with you on November 2, 2018 to the setting up of the negotiating committee and our director-general’s willingness to offer to pay the redundancy as opposed to the stand of the chairman of SAHCOL. It is evident that if we have the resources, this would have been a forgone issue.”
However, findings by our correspondent showed the angry former workers are exploring the option of a fresh protest to press home their demands.
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