Stating this in Abuja at the 4th Aviation Stakeholder Forum, the Minister of State for Aviation, Hadi Sirika, said the delay in the payment is due to the Easter break that has halted the Senate from approving the payment till after the holiday.
According to him: “the House of Representative have passed the payment, the Senate says it will pass it after the Easter break. So there is no need to close down the economy of the country” Sirika tells with Aviation Unions.
“You don’t need to close the airspace, in this hard times we have been able to raise N45 billion to pay for the pension arrears own the workers” adding that government was committed to the welfare of workers.
It will be recalled that on the 19th of March, 2018, Unions in the aviation sector in partnership with the Nigeria Labour Congress, Trade Union Congress (TUC) and United Labour Congress (ULC) gave the Federal Government 14 days ultimatum to pay the pension arrears or face strike action.
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The Unions decried the delay in the payment of N45 billion which they said was approved by the Federal government 10 months ago for payment of pension and other entitlement of over 5,000 workers of the defunct Nigeria Airways.
The ultimatum is expected to expire on the 2nd of April, 2018.
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