NUPENG president condemns disparity in aviation workers salaries
The National President of National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers of Nigeria (NUPENG) Comrade Igwe Achese has condemned the disparity in remuneration of workers in the aviation sector between Nigerian professionals and their expatriates’ counterparts.
Speaking to journalists in Port Harcourt at the 14th National Delegates Conference ahead of the National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers, Comrade Achese described the trend as very unfortunate for government to have abandoned those he described as key elements in the nation’s economy.
Achese said that it was sad at a time that Nigeria has trained professionals to man the aviation sector that expatriates were still flourishing in large numbers in the sector.
“It is very quite unfortunate that those who are key elements in our nation’s economy are being neglected or abandoned especially, the Pilots, Engineers and all the various structures of the aviation industry”
According to the NUPENG boss, there was need for government to have structures and policies on ground in the aviation sector in other to get things right.”We need to look at the policies that govern the aviation sector, it’s sad to see disparity in terms of remuneration of our own Nigerian professionals and that of the foreign professionals”
Achese explained that the country was currently facing recession as a result of the few individuals that hijacked the economy. “What is the structure of privatization policy of the government if they are privatizing.
It is not just enough for an individual to bring in foreign partners and at the end of the day will hijack aviation sector. That is why we found ourselves in the current recession”
Achese, who is also the deputy national president of the recently formed United Labour Congress (ULC) said it was unfortunate that government of the day has hijacked the Nigerian Labour Congress of today hence the body cannot agitate for workers welfare any longer especially with the review of the minimum wage.
He explained that while ULC was negotiating N96, 000 as minimum wage, NLC was negotiating N56, 000 adding that both workers and labour must join forces to form a collaboration to pursue their course.
Achese expressed hope that the future was bright for the ULC in order to restore their expectations and more labour centres coming to affiliate with the ULC to make the environment more comfortable for workers.
