Aero Contractors sacks over 100 workers hours to May Day

Hours to workers day celebration, the ailing Aero Contractors, Nigeria’s domestic airline has sacked over 100 staff members following the termination of contractual agreement with one of its contractors; SBL.

A source in the airline revealed that “the management has not sacked workers, but only seized its contractual agreement with one of its contractors, SBL”.

The source told Daily Times that most of those affected by the sack were support staff, who had spent few years with the airline but that majority of the affected workers were not original staff of the airline.

According to the source, those affected by the development were contract staff, whose contract had expired with the company.

The source added that some departments and workers were outsourced by the management and that since the airline no longer required their services, there was no point keeping them.

He reiterated that no staff of the airline was affected by the management decision.

The source added that what Aero did not sack workers, but stylishly reduce its workforce, particularly workers whose services were no longer required by the airline and that exercise cuts across departments.

“Those laid off were not staff of our airline. You know in Aero, some departments and duties are outsourced. Son what the management did was not to renew their contracts once it expired. I can tell you that our staff are intact and we don’t have the plans to retrench workers. We didn’t have the need of those outsourced and we felt they should be withdrawn from our services”. he said

One of the letters addressed to one of the affected workers which our correspondent stumbled on indicated that the exercise was carried out as part of the ongoing restructuring in the airline.

“Dear colleague, in the light of the ongoing restructuring at Aero, we regret to inform you that your services are no longer required and employment with SBL terminated with immediate effect. Please, return all company properties to your Manager/Supervisor by 8am on 28/04/2016. We regret any inconvenience caused”.

Responding, the Airline said,” In the course of reorganizing and repositioning its business, Aero Contractors has reviewed its relationship with Skyborne by cutting down some of the services required from the company. This will help the company to invest more resources to enhance customer service. For the record Aero has not sacked any of its staff”.

Recalled that the airline was taken over by Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) due to the debt running into millions of naira.

The airline had also been in the news lately for alleged corruption and diversion of funds by officials and management of the airline.

To further strengthen the airline and keep the hopes of workers alive AMCON, which owned over 70 per cent shares in the company recently appointed the former Director-General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Capt. Fola Akinkuotu as its new Managing Director of the airline with dwindling fortunes.