The Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ATSSSAN) on Wednesday lamented the unfortunate death of five former staff of the defunct Nigerian Airways who passed on within the last seven days without receiving their final severance packages promised them by the federal government.
TheHintsNews reports that the nation’s national carrier was liquidated by the Olusegun Obasanjo administration.
Speaking at the May 1st 2024 Workers Day celebration in Lagos, First Vice President of the association, Emmanuel Jaja noted that over 100 former workers of the country’s national airline had died since the last verification and part payment exercise carried out during the Muhammad Buhari’s administration in 2019.
He, therefore, urged the federal government to settle all the outstanding severance benefits of the erstwhile workers who he said put in the greater part of their life in the service of their fatherland.
Jaja stated: “Again, we wish to lament the death of five former Staff of the Nigerian Airways Staff who lost their lives in the last one week, including the pilot whose plane was hijacked in 1993, Captain Makpo Omodiagbe without them receiving their full benefits from the federal government after the liquidation of the the airline.”
“The government must endeavour to pay the remaining living staff so that they can enjoy the labour of their lives before they are called home by their creator.”
“We wish to reiterate that ATSSSAN in collaboration with NUATE and other unions will make the industry uncomfortable for airlines and companies that has refused to allow their workforce to unionised” he told the union members.”