COVID-19: While airlines should show empathy to workers…

For anybody to undermine the catastrophic indelible marks the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic will leave on the sand of time may be tantamount to foolhardiness by the time the scourge must have completed its mysterious cycle around the world.

Presently, as the deadly virus continues to travel round the nations of the world wreaking havoc, the governments of nations of the world are in disarray with some getting overwhelmed by the number of deaths and figures of those infected on a daily basis.

Apart from the human casualties still being recorded, the economic hardship the deadly virus will throw at the various sectors of the economy will linger on for many decades.

One particular sector that will be hard hit by the monster is no doubt the aviation sector because of the effects of the precautionary measures taken to prevent the further spread of the virus which mostly target air travels.

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19, the entire aviation sector has been in total lockdown with air transportation entirely halted and hundreds of thousands of aircraft across airports remaining on ground.

The Nigerian airlines which hitherto had been struggling to survive have now had their cases worsened as the COVID-19 has finally forced them to suspend operations.

The Nigerian airlines though have confirmed the unbearable economic hardship the virus has thrown at them which they said cannot be quantified presently, they nevertheless agreed that at the end of the disaster that it may take domestic airline business decades to bounce back.

Without doubt, various disasters loom in the sector after the pandemic must have subsided which may be the beginning of another crisis in this sector as majority of the domestic airlines may want to take some actions in their bid to remain in business.

Already fears are being raised in some quarters that the greatest victims of the consequence of the COVID-19 are the workers as feelers flying around is that some of the airlines are already placing their workers on no work no pay.

One of such airlines that wasted no time in letting its workers know that tough times are ahead is Max Air which has already issued a memo to them declaring that they should not expect salaries while the ongoing two weeks lockdown lasts. The memo further emphasised that the state of no work no pay would extend if the situation persisted.

Definitely, there are other airlines that are waiting to roll out new measures which may include disengagement of their workers in the coming days under the excuse of surviving the post COVID-19 hardship.

Therefore, to say the next few months will spell difficult times to airline workers may not be an exaggeration and at the same time expected from the airlines who are the ones directly experiencing the heat.

Any action the airline owners want to take as regard the staff must be carried out with human face without necessarily complicating the problems for the already troubled workers and their dependents.

Without doubts,any rash action taken by the airlines may boomerang as it may affect the survival the airlines are actually trying to protect and this may subsequently affect critical safety issues which hitherto the outbreak of COVID-19 were perfectly being managed by the staff.

While the airlines deserve encouragement in the face of the Coronavirus-induced challenges, there is however the need for serious precaution to be applied by the airlines, the federal government, the workers through their unions and other relevant stakeholders.

It is heartwarming to learn that the Chairman, House Committee on Aviation, Honourable Nnolim Nnaji has stepped into the Max Air and its workers issue urging the airline and others to show empathy to their workers.

Nnaji appealed to the management of the airline to reconsider this hard line posture by retracing its action in this regard and equally urged other organisations in the sector to see this trying period as a time of sacrifice and show extreme compassion to their staff.

While the lawmaker’s action is in order, one obvious fact is that for the airlines to show sympathy to the workers, the government has a very big role to play in assisting the domestic airlines with palliative measures that will help in cushioning the effect of the COVID-19 scourge and assisting them to bounce back to business.

The coming months or even years will definitely not blow any good wind towards airline business and it is the passengers that will suffer the spillover implications.

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