The atmosphere at the headquarters of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) in Lagos was tense on Tuesday when THISDAY visited.
There was brewing animosity and some workers hurdle together at corners and under the tree to talk in hushed tones.
Last week the unions representing the workers had given the agency one-week ultimatum to promote some workers whose promotion was due for over 15 months or they would close the agency.
Some of the affected workers who spoke to THISDAY were so dispirited that you could literally touch their angst.
They insisted that they must be promoted and excoriated the management for the delay, insisting that after one week, not only that the workers would disrupt activities at the agency but would also “embarrass” the members of the executive.
The disagreement between the workers and the NCAA management stemmed from delayed promotion of workers who were supposed to go to higher positions, for example, from the deputy general manager to general manager.
But the management had explained that there were no vacancies in which those due to be promoted would fill. This is because according to the organogram of the agency, all vacant positions had been filled. Organogram chart is a diagram that shows the structure of an organization and the relationships and relative ranks of its parts and positions/jobs.
In order words, the NCAA organogram seemed to have limited the vacant positions that if the workers due for promotion were promoted they would not have any position to occupy.
To exacerbate the already bad situation, recently three directorates were merged to where they were created from, thus shrinking the positions further.
The hitherto Consumer Protection Directorate was taken back to the Directorate of Air Transport Regulations as a department, the Directorate of General Aviation was taken to the Directorate of Air Worthiness as a department, while Directorate of Licensing was merged to the Directorate of Operation and Training also as a department.
The reason why they were merged, inside sources in the agency said, was because their initial creation was not in the Nigerian Civil Aviation Act. But labour is peeved with the decision to merge these hitherto directorates and it is insisting that the agency should go back to the status. Doing that would create vacancies where the people who are waiting in the wings to be promoted would go.
So the unions are demanding for the adjustment of the agency’s organogram, which stagnated some of the workers who are denied promotion after several years.
The unions: Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ATSSSAN), National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE) and the Association of Nigeria Aviation Professionals (ANAP) have collectively insisted that they would close NCAA at the expiration of one week ultimatum given to the agency.
But there is a snag. THISDAY learnt that NCAA alone cannot make any changes without recourse to the Ministry of Transportation (Aviation). And informed source also told THISDAY that the Minister of State, Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika is not disposed to giving approval to the return to the status quo or to support the tinkering of the organogram to create more vacancies for workers to be promoted into.
The Deputy President, ATSSSAN, Comrade Emmanuel Jaja in an interview had accused the Minister of State, Senator Sirika of manipulating the new organogram and agreement reached with the NCAA management.
According to him, a tripartite team comprising of the unions, NCAA management and the government had sat down to fashion out a new organogram for NCAA as a result of its new status, but allegedly Sirika single-handedly changed the organogram.
He alleged that the organogram returned to the management was entirely different from what was agreed with the committee, adding that it was skewed against the workers.
He insisted that the new organogram would not create room for development of workers, adding that some who were due for promotion since 2017 were yet to be promoted, while the government was also on the verge of merging some of the directorates.
“There was a tripartite committee on the issue of the organogram of NCAA; the unions, NCAA management and the government, but all of a sudden, when the organogram returned to the management, what was presented to the team was entirely different from what was agreed upon.
“As it is, the organogram of NCAA has been messed up with what the management and the government just did. The unions will follow the due process in its action. We all know that strike or picketing is not a tea party. The staff are requesting for an ultimatum from us here now to ginger the management to take the right step,” he explained.
But while the unions recognize that the Ministry had an input to the seeming quagmire in the organogram, some NCAA workers who are miffed heaped all the blame on the agency’s management.
It is yet to be known whether the workers will carry out their threat or they would hold more talks with both the Ministry and NCAA to resolve the impasse.
THISDAY
