Pilots, engineers may down tool over pay disparity
●Seek law to protect sector
Except a truce is reached, engineers and pilots of two domestic airlines (names withheld) may down tool over pay disparity between them and their expatriate counterparts.
The Nigerian workers are frustrated by the huge gap created by their employers at the detriment of more qualified indigenous pilots and engineers.
Experts are demanding the enactment of local content caw to protect indigenous workers.
National Vice President, National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE), Capt. Yakubu Dukas, told Woleshadarenews in Lagos that “engineers in … are fighting for parity. The unfortunate situation is that owners of this business don’t see it that way. An expatriate engineer comes in and earns $10,000. His raw dollars are given to him and a national earns $6,000 but he is not paid the dollar component.”
He disclosed that the airline owners pay at a degraded naira to dollar rate, saying “I give you an example. Caverton Helicopters pays N305 to the dollar. Bristow pays N345 to the dollar. It is only Omni Blu that I know and stand to be corrected that pays N360 to the dollar.”
“For God’s sake, if you are paying someone at inter-bank rate or Central Bank of Nigeria rate of N305 The situation, he noted, had led to brain drain as many of the professionals are getting engaged by countries like China and Middle East that are in search of pilots to fill huge gaps in their aviation sector.
Dukas reiterated that the brain drain would eventually lead to a big crisis in the next two years if nothing is done to arrest the ugly situation.
him $5,000; you are exploiting him and these are people who work much more than the expatriates because during your leave, they can call you back, but they wouldn’t call somebody from Spain, Brazil,” he added.
Dukas maintained that the nation boasted of capable hands to be aircraft commanders and engineers, stressing many of them are far better and experienced than some expatriates that carriers hire, thereby leading to joblessness of indigenous professionals.
Faced with frustration back home, Dukas stated that there were many high-ranking pilots and engineers that have left the shores of the country in search of jobs in the Middle East and Europe, adding that they are doing well in their chosen careers.
“It is a serious challenge. I can bet with you that in the next two years, the older brigade of pilots are leaving. So, a huge gap will exist. Where do you get the replacement? That is the question.
“It is very sad, but that is the obvious truth. I tell you one story. About two months ago, I was going to Ikoyi and I called a Taxifier. We were driving on Third Mainland Bridge, my phone rang and I picked it, it was my managing director asking me a question about a flight that I did. I started discussing with him. Having finished the discussion, the cab man said sir, I don’t mean to intrude into your discussion, but I trained as pilot. It is very scary.”
He stated that the pilot union recently opened a NAAPE headquarters for all pilots and engineers, who are jobless to come and register.
Dukas further disclosed that after looking at the register, over 200 of them had written their names, lamenting that the bad thing about the profession is that it is age related.
“For example, an airline owner will prefer to employ an 18-year-old boy than carry a 36-year-old person. The reason they do that is to make them conform the boy to whatever standards they want. Because you are 36 and independent minded and know what is right and wrong, they wouldn’t want to employ him. Those are some of the challenges in the Nigerian aviation industry today,” he noted.
He also faulted the aviation regulatory body, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), for standing aloof without wielding its powers to correct some of the anomalies in the industry.
“I can’t go to Brazil. I am a pilot, a qualified one, but I can’t go to Brazil to get employment ahead of a national. It is not possible. Here is a country where everything goes. It is very pathetic like I have said, but the situation is real,” he added.
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