May Day: Sirika regrets effect of COVID-19 on aviation, urges workers to keep hope alive

 

 

 

Posted by Sade Williams

 

As Nigerian workers join their colleagues in other parts of the world to mark the 2020 Workers Day, Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, has regretted the consequences of the lockdown occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic on the sector, urging workers however to keep hope alive that the sector would come out of it soon.

 

While assuring workers of better days ahead in spite of the current hardship,  he 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.

 

He however expressed the belief that there’s a bright future for the Nigerian aviation industry after the dark times that it presently faces, hoping that the pandemic will be short-lived.

 

According to the Minister, ‘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 reduction of their wages as occasioned by the redundancy caused by COVID-19 scourge.

 

Government, he said, 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.

 

He however appeals 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.