Anambra Airport: Management increases salary, fails to address casualization, allegedly threatens workers

The management of Anambra State Airport, also known as Chinua Achebe International Airport, Umueri, has increased the salary of workers by N30,000 across board but threatened to deal with anyone found to have leaked official information to ‘outsiders.’

DAILY POST had earlier reported that the workers wrote a passionate letter to Governor Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra state, and the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, seeking urgent intervention to their plight.

In an apparent response to that outcry, the management increased the salary of workers but was yet to act on issue of casualization and other alleged inhuman conditions.

The management also promised to ‘seek approval from Governor Soludo’ in order to issue the workers employment letter “in two-month time.”;

A worker at the meeting said the management team frowned at what they described as leakage of official information to outsiders by some staff and warned them that tough disciplinary actions would be meted on anyone found to be involved in the act.

Reacting, one of the workers, who didn’t want to be mentioned because of the fear of victimization, said what the management did was less than half-measure to silence the workers, adding that most of their grievances have not been addressed.

“In our letter, we told the Governor that the management has not issued offer letters to workers for nearly four years that we started working here.

“We do not think there is any other place in the country where all workers of a government-owned company or even in the private sector work as casual hands for four years.

“By saying he would get approval from the governor in two months, the management is indirectly saying that the casualization was sanctioned by the state government.

“We also complained about Zero statutory allowances. Airport staff across Nigeria and globally are entitled to mandatory Hazard allowance, Shift allowance, Health insurance and housing Allowance. These are compulsory allowances airport staff are entitled to but we get none here.

“Also on our list was lack of training. The only thing they take you through is induction training when you first resume. No staff has been sent on training either in Nigeria or any other part of the world to learn about new developments in the Aviation sector as well as to interact with other aviation players.

“The N30,000 salary increase across board which we are not even sure when it would commence, does not answer our demand for salary that conforms with national minimum wage as is being paid by the Anambra State government.

“We need to repeat that we at Anambra Airport are the lowest paid airport workers in Nigeria. Our findings show that we are the least at the bottom of the ladder.

“The morale of staff is at their lowest, staff now resort to cooperate begging to survive, we receive almost twice less than what our nearest neighbour pays her staff. Staff salaries are deducted at the slightest provocation to make an already bad situation worse.

“In addition, we complained of poor safety measures. The management is supposed to know the importance of safety in the aviation industry both for passengers and for workers but here, the idea of best industry standards is thrown to the winds.

“That is why, occasionally fires ignite at different parts of the airport, including bushfires which threaten expensive airport installations. We also recalled in the letter that a facility fire at the CITA fuel dump at the Airport on the 1st of December 2024 led to the death of the CITA staff stationed there,”; the source said, adding that workers at Anambra State Airport, Umueri are in pain.

He called on Governor Soludo and the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, to, as a matter of urgency, intervene to address the various issues they have tabled before them in their petitions.