Air Peace Allegedly Sacks Pilots As Renumeration Impasse Escalates

Foremost indigenous airline Air Peace, on Sunday, reportedly sacked a substantial number of pilots in its employ as the company tries to adjust to the economic realities of the COVID-19 era.

NewsWireNGR reports that the development is a precursor to a chain of event which initially started out with a remarkable dialogue between the management and the pilots but subsequently spiralled into an unpleasant protracted pay dispute.

The online media outfit, quoting one of the affected pilots, said the body of pilots at the airline was preparing to embark on a strike beginning today Monday August 3, 2020 in response to perceived insensitivity and obstinact by management on the subject of pay cuts and unethical HR actions aimed at firing pilots without paying the necessary compensation..

The source averred that the genesis of the trouble is not unconnected to an email from CEO Allen Onyema two days before the closure of Nigeria’s airspace on March 29, 2020.

Also Read: FG Announces Cancellation Of Air Peace Evacuation Flight From UK

In the purported email, Onyema informed all Air Peace staff of a gradual pay reduction starting with 5 percent slash for those earning N150,000 monthly and culminating in 30 percent slash for those earning above N1,000,000 monthly.

The implication of the information contained in the email was that the pay cuts and unpaid leave would be temporary measures.

But in bizarre twist of events, Air Peace allegedly refused to keep to its side of the bargain of the gentleman’s agreement.

According to the source quoted by NewsWireNGR, the company decided to deploy some shenanigans and underhand tactics to relieve the pilots and other staff of their duty.

The body of pilots at the airline became enraged by the development, and this action became the catalyst that brought matters to a head.

The situation is the culmination of chain of events which eventually sets the tinderbox of altercations between management and flight staff.

Describing what happened the source said: “On May 15, copilots on the 737 fleet were called into the office, where they had their company-issued ipads and IDs taken from them and they were placed on suspension, just so the company could get them off payroll without giving them any severance pay. When flights were scheduled to resume we had a zoom meeting with Allen and he informed us that due to staggered opening of airports and a possible low passenger load, he was proposing a 40% salary cut.”

NewsWireNGR gathered that the relationship between management and the aggrieved pilots continued to deteriorate over the next few weeks, resulting in a livid email from Onyema railing against the pilots for “attempting to hold him hostage”, and threatening to close down the airline rather than cave in to them.

Thesource  further revealed that two days to payday, information about a fresh salary structure came from management, which the pilots found unacceptable.

Describing what happened next, the source said:

“We all received a revised salary structure that effectively meant our take home pay would be 20% of what it used to be pre-COVID. Efforts to get management to dialogue and understand the safety implications of their actions were only met with threats. We were planning to embark on a strike tomorrow after giving them 2 weeks for dialogue and this evening at 11pm we got termination letters.”

EkoHotBlog gathered that the airline’s scheduled flights tomorrow are set to be handled by management pilots who do not usually handle flight duties everyday, including the Director of Flight operations, Head of training and the various fleet managers.