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Virgin Nigeria: intervention urged as Nigerian aviation unions threaten disruption
18 May 2005
The ITF is demanding that the chairman of a new British-run air service, the successor of a liquidated Nigerian airline, intervene in a dispute involving former workers of the wound-up company over outstanding payments. This amid Nigerian civil aviation union calls for a boycott of the new service.
In a letter to Sir Richard Branson, Virgin Nigeria Chairman, on 12 May, the ITF urged the company for a second time – an initial letter was sent in March - to help resolve the matter, which has left former employees of Nigeria Airways without pensions and gratuity payments owed to them for some years.
In the letter ITF General Secretary David Cockroft stated: “Virgin Nigeria is not simply a new company to begin operations in the country, but has taken over major assets and the route network of the liquidated Nigeria Airways. Consequently, Virgin Nigeria should be considered the successor company, and is thus responsible for achieving a satisfactory solution, if not legally then at least morally.”
He also noted the urgency of the matter outlining the problem of inflation in the country “which means that each day that passes in which this situation remains unresolved, the workers’ arrears are further devalued.”
The ITF-affiliated unions involved in the dispute - the Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, the National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers and the National Union of Air Transport Employees – issued a statement vowing to disrupt the Virgin Nigeria service.
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