The National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE) has grounded the operations of Kenya Airways over the sacking of about 20 Nigerian employees. NUATE’s General Secretary, Olayinka Abioye, on Thursday, last week said the union would not call off the strike except the airline’s management met the union to negotiate terms of disengagement of the affected workers.
NUATE members barricaded the airline’s check-in counter at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, preventing passengers from boarding and warned Air Rwanda, not to violate the country’s labour laws by assisting to fly Kenya Airways passengers.
Abioye accused Kenya Airways of anti-labour practices and breach of collective bargaining protocols. He alleged that the airline had violated the extant labour laws by declaring the affected workers redundant and refusing to pay them their entitlements.
Aviation workers have become the victims of oppression, with pitiable remuneration, poor welfare and inaccessible pension packages but this trend should be curbed as soon as possible.
