The minister of aviation, Mr. Hadi Sirika has assured workers in the aviation industry of better days ahead in spite of the current hardship caused by the coronavirus-induced shutdown of the sector.
In his message to the workers on ‘May Day’ which is celebrated globally to mark workers’ day, Sirika said workers in the aviation industry were among the hardest hit economically by the coronavirus pandemic ravaging the world, especially with the grounding of passenger flights and shutting down of services globally.
However, he said “there’s a bright future for the Nigerian aviation industry after the dark times that it presently faces” adding that the pandemic will be short-lived.
“It is highly regrettable that airlines and other service providers are being forced to cope with the option of either sending their staff on compulsory leaves or reducing their wages as occasioned by the redundancy caused by COVID-19 scourge,” he said.
He said the government was aware of the dire situation in the aviation sector and “will do whatever is practically possible to mitigate the consequences of the total lockdown in the industry and create an enabling environment for the sector to bounce back.”
The minister therefore appealed to both private and public workers in the sector to keep hope alive “as there’re reasons to believe that the industry will come out of the current situation stronger, and in a better situation to improve the welfare of its employees.”
