By Francis Ogwo
The National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE) has passed a directive that all its members under the payroll of Bristow Helicopters should commence a strike action from August 3, 2020.
In a letter signed by Deputy National Secretary, Umoh Ofonime, with Ref NS/GS/NAAPE/vol.051/2020 dated July 29, 2020, NAAPE made the directive over unresolved issues with Bristow management.
The decision by the association is coming after the failed consensus on sensitive labour matters including a three-day warning strike.
According to the release, the allegation against Bristow includes, “Insistence on benchmarking salaries of national pilots and engineers to an obsolete rate of N345/$1 coupled with their recent insistence on their proposal to implement N355/$1- a rate which is not obtainable on any legal foreign exchange window in the world, while still paying expatriates their full remuneration in USD.
“Failure to train qualified persons for ATPL and failure to fully reimburse individuals who have successfully completed their ATPL through self-sponsorship – a deviation from the agreement in place at the time and disproportionate matching and capped reimbursement cash figure for self-sponsored pilots on ATPL with an employment bond of N30m – an obvious unethical and sharp practice.
“Odious laying off of young cadet and trainee engineers after several years of tearful sacrificial toiling on the basis of a promised career in the company.
“Anomalous implementation of engineers’ matrix/chart/progression and refusal to adjust national engineers’ progression in tandem with expatriate nationals and global aviation standards and the norm of jettisoning negotiated agreements as in the case of systemic dissolution of the engineering work shift in Eket operation.”
The Union lamented that despite series of meetings and moves with the management of Bristow, the issues were left unresolved especially as it accused Bristow of discrimination and victimization, which, according to the Union, has had a negative toll on its members as they are not “mentally conditioned to safely deliver their professional obligations.”
The association advised its members to pull away from their services to the brand until the issues are sorted.
