CAA: Aviation workers fault new law, threatens to shut airports

Workers in the aviation sector have fixed Monday to protest the provision in the new Civil Aviation Act (CAA), which gives the minister of aviation the power to proscribe the unions.

 President Muhammadu Buhari had last week signed the new CAA into law.

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 The workers argued that the new law classify aviation agencies as rendering essential services and empower the minister to prohibit industrial action by unions. 

The workers’ unions at a joint conference at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos yesterday gave a 14-day ultimatum from Monday to correct the anomaly or face a total shutdown of the sector. 

The unions are the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ATSSSAN), the Association of Nigerian Aviation Professionals (ANAP), National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE) and the Amalgamated Union of Public Corporation Civil Service Technical and Recreational Services Employees (AUPCTRE).

 General Secretary of NUATE, Ocheme Aba, who briefed newsmen, explained that the issue of prescribing union activities did not come up during the public hearings organised by the Joint National Assembly Committee on Aviation before the bills were passed.

“For all intents and purposes, the above stated provisions represent an effort at repression and oppression,” Aba said. 

He reiterated that during the public hearing organised by the House of Representatives, the issue of essential services was responded to by the president of NAAPE who drew attention to a National Industrial Court ruling that airlines did not render essential services.

 The unions demanded investigations into how the clauses found their way into the bills transmitted to the president because they were in conflict with prevailing national and international laws.