Breaking:FAAN slashes workers’ salaries, NAMA workers protest pay cut
Hit by the dwindling revenue generation amid COVID-19 pandemic, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) said it may not be able to pay full salary of staff as from May 2020 until the situation.
The agency stated as soon as revenue situation improves, the balance will be paid.
In an internal memo sighted by Woleshadarenew with reference number FAAN/HQ/ADMIN/2020O5 dated May 19, 2020 and signed by General Manager, Administration, FAAN, M.D. Musa.
Titled, “Notice on payment of staff salary” addressed to all staff, the memo stated that the measure was to ensure the survival of the organization.
In a related development, the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) was said to have met the three major unions in aviation with a view to convincing them why NAMA will pay workers half salaries for the month of May.
A source said this was rebuffed by the unions who urged the management to look inwards with a view to paying them their full salaries for the month.
The source who was privy to the meeting said the unions, especially air traffic controllers are planning to down tools should the management go ahead to pay them just their basic salaries which they have concluded to do tomorrow.
Workers of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) are exempted from salary cut as they are expected to be paid in full tomorrow for the month of May.
Penultimate week, Chairman, NIGAV Centre and Airport Business Summit, Mr. Fortune Idu disclosed that the outbreak of COVID 19 pandemic has taken a serious toll on the fortunes of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), describing it as the strongest player within the nation’s aviation industry.
To him, the dilemma of FAAN is that whereas it has 22 airports in its kitty, the burden of paying both salaries and running costs of the entire airports sadly rests on the revenue generation of just two of the airports.
His words, “It must be emphasised here that the critical position of FAAN as the pillar of the fragile and slowly developing Nigeria aviation sector requires that careful consideration be made by government in taking decision concerning the organisation and as such, retrenchment of staff cannot be considered in this circumstance but serious effort should be made to reposition FAAN to save the industry”.
He called on the airport authority to begin the design and the implementation of a private sector-like business model so as to make at least 10 out of its 22 airports self-sustaining or viable bearing in mind that in practical terms, not all airports can be viable as some will merely play social and economic support roles which are catalysts to development of other related businesses which will not enhance their own bottom-line.
He counseled FAAN to pursue with vigour, the improvement of non-aeronautic revenue and bring it up to 50 per cent in its total airport revenue, stressing that the authority urgently needs to lead a national drive for full scale aero logistics development with special investment focus on agro logistics as a way to improve cargo services and revenue.
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