Crises Hit SAHCO Plc Over N1.8bn Workers’ Benefits

<p>Crises Hit SAHCO Plc<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">OpenLife Nigeria<&sol;a><&sol;strong> reports that at the moment&comma; Skyway Aviation Handling Company&comma; SAHCO&comma; ex-workers are up in arms with the management&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The ex-workers&comma; OpenLife gathered&comma; are crying out for being of the owned 11 years severance benefits&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;SAHCO which has since gone public was an arm of the defunct Nigerian Airways which was sold to SIFAX Group in 2009&period; Taiwo Afolabi is the chief executive officer &lpar;CEO&rpar; of SIFAX Group&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;But as the <strong>crises<&sol;strong> hit hard&comma;  the ex-workers who are 982 in number said no fewer than 15 of them have died fighting for their entitlement while many of them are currently incapacitated&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;They however gave the company and the Bureau of Public Enterprises &lpar;BPE&rpar; one week to pay their entitlement&comma; saying failure to do so would disrupt SAHCO’s operation in 22 airports across the country&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Chairman of the former SAHCO retirees&comma; Ochai Adamu&comma; who spoke with newsmen at the Murtala Muhammed Airport&comma; Lagos&comma; asked the BPE to intervene in the matter immediately&comma; adding that SAHCO has handed off payment of the benefits&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;He said the entire benefit was N3&period;5bn but was later reduced to N1&period;8bn&comma; adding that none of the workers has got any money since 11 years&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Aviation unions comprising the National Union of Air Transport Employees<a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;dailytrust&period;com&sol;"> &lpar;NUATE&rpar;<&sol;a> and the Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria &lpar;ATSSSAN&rpar; had on 31st of August wrote a letter to SAHCO that the continued refusal to pay the benefit of the affected workers &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;is a recipe for industrial crisis in the company&period;”<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We are constrained&comma; therefore&comma; to inform you that our unions can no longer wait helplessly and hopelessly as these victims die one after another without enjoying the benefits of their labour&comma;” the unions said in the letter signed by the General Secretary of NUATE&comma; Comrade Ocheme Aba&comma; and Deputy General Secretary&comma; ATSSSAN&comma; Comrade Frances Akinjole&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;But SAHCO in a reply to the letter insisted that the redundancy claim by the ex-workers is for the number of years they worked for the federal government and not for SAHCO&comma; and directed that the threat should be directed to the appropriate quarters&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;