20/08/2025
JOINT ACTION COMMITTEE OF UNIONS
IN VICTOR ATTAH INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
(NATIONAL UNION OF AIR TRANSPORT EMPLOYEES – NUATE;
AIR TRANSPORT SERVICES SENIOR STAFF ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA – ATSSSAN;
ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA AVIATION PROFESSIONALS – ANAP)
Friday, August 15, 2025.
Mr. Uwem Ekanem,
The MD/CEO,
Ibom Airport Development Company Limited (IADCL)
Uyo,
Akwa Ibom State.
Sir,
COMMUNIQUE AND ULTIMATUM ISSUED AT THE END OF THE EMERGENCY JOINT CONGRESS OF THE NATIONAL UNION OF AIR TRANSPORT EMPLOYEES (NUATE), THE AIR TRANSPORT SERVICES SENIOR STAFF ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (ATSSSAN), AND THE ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA AVIATION PROFESSIONALS (ANAP) HELD AT THE EOC-VAIA ON FRIDAY, 15TH AUGUST, 2025.
1. Following the clear and evident neglect of the IADCL Workers’ Welfare and rapid collapse of the entire IADCL system under your leadership and unwillingness to fulfill countless promises regarding staff welfare needs, it became necessary for an emergency joint congress of the three aviation unions in the company viz: the NATIONAL UNION OF AIR TRANSPORT EMPLOYEES (NUATE), AIR TRANSPORT SERVICES SENIOR STAFF ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (ATSSSAN), and ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA AVIATION PROFESSIONALS (ANAP) to hold on Friday, August 15, 2025. The sole objective of the Joint Congress was to undertake a review of your responses and actions towards IADCL Staff welfare concerns that have been brought to your attention since 2019 and some since after the ratification of the revised Staff Conditions and Schemes of Service with a view to charting the way forward.
2. During the meeting, the Joint NUATE, ATSSSAN, and ANAP Congress-in-session acknowledged the support of the Head of Civil Service in ensuring the recent successful revision of the staff Condition of Service (COS) and Scheme of Service (SOS). Congress-in-Session also appreciated the Governor Umo Eno’s release of 1.19Billion naira for development of infrastructures in the airport, but expressed mixed feelings in the non allocation of funds to critical staff welfare concerns.
3. The Joint Congress-in-session seriously frowned at the following observations:
a) Staff Training and Retraining
It was disturbing to the Joint Congress to note that despite Personnel Licensing (and Training) being the ICAO ANNEX I, that the last industry professional training of IADCL Workers that was sponsored by the Company was in 2009; and that the overwhelming majority of IADCL Personnel, especially of the ARFFS and AVSEC Departments have never been trained since being employed.
b) Terminal Benefits For IADCL
Congress lamented that despite the inclusion of PENSION AND GRATUITY among the benefits of IADCL Employees as enshrined in her government approved COS, none of the four 4 IADCL Personnel who have so far retired from service, have benefited from these provisions.
c) Non-payment of Death Benefits to Families of Deceased IADCL Personnel ever, and Non- payment of Burial Grants since 2020 to Staff who lost their parents.
It was distressing for the Joint Congress to receive the disturbing report that while the IADCL HR/Admin was often quick to activate stoppage of salaries of deceased IADCL Personnel, despite a blatant refusal to activate the payment of death benefits to deceased families of IADCL Workers. Burial Grants to Staff who lost their parents have not been paid since 2020.
d) Non-payment of Financial Obligations in the Revised 2024 COS.
The Joint Congress noted with utter dismay that about a year down the line, there is a refusal of Government to pay all revised financial obligations as reflected in the revised 2024 Staff Conditions of Service.
e) Wrong Placement of Selected Workers
The report was shocking to Congress-in-session that Staff Members who were promoted since 2018 from SGL 06 to SGL 07 and thereafter from SGL 07 to 08 are yet to be properly placed in the Company Salary Table. The same is true with members of staff who were wrongfully transferred out of the airport to the mainstream civil service in 2015 and later brought back. Despite the clear directives of the AKHA, these Officers Grade Level are yet to be restored, along with the concomitant financial benefits. This development, Congress noted, was unfair as it had resulted in the affected officers being shortchanged throughout the period in question, despite their various letters being specific in stating their respective entitlements and financial benefits.
f) Shortchange of IADCL Workers in Salary Payment
Whereas the Joint Congress-in-session was appreciative of the inclusion of IADCL in the payment of the new minimum wage, it was disheartening to consider verifiable evidences to the fact that IADCL employees were significantly shortchanged in the payment. Findings revealed that this was due to a deliberate calculation to reduce the salaries of Akwa Ibom Airport Workers but increase the Pay As You Earn PAYE tax, despite the biting economic climate.
g) Non-conformity of IADCL Salary Structure to that of the Aviation Industry
It was disturbing to establish that despite repeated complaints and correspondences, there exist the deliberate non-adoption of the uniform aviation salary structure in IADCL, as implemented by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), Nigerian Civil Aviation Agency (NCAA) etc.
h) Failure to kickstart the 2025 Staff Promotion Exercise;
The Congress-in-session observed the fact that whereas the mainstream Civil Service in the State have concluded the process of its Staff Promotion Exercise, the IADCL is yet to make its Staff Appraisal forms available due to what you referred to as lack of funds.
RESOLUTIONS
4. Following a robust and exhaustive deliberation of the aforementioned issues, the Joint Congress-in-Session resolved:
i. That the Board and Management of IADCL should immediately lift its embargo placed on staff training and retraining which took effect since 2009;
ii. That given the emphasis on personnel licensing and development by industry regulatory agencies, the IADCL Management ought to pay more than lip service to the commitment of ensuring that IADCL employees undergo the requisite basic and advanced professional trainings and certifications in tandem with industry best practices. And for her failure to do so, IADCL employees shall not take responsibility for any incident recorded at work as a result of dysfunctional facilities or personnel incompetence due to a lack of adequate training;
iii. That the Management of IADCL should without further delay adopt the aviation industry based Salary Structure implemented by sister agencies of FAAN, NAMA, NIMET, NCAA. etc;
iv. That the Congress-in-session, having considered her forensic review of the ATSS Salary Structure together with the CONAKESS and the Salary Structures of sister agencies in the aviation sector, has rejected the current IADCL Salary Table in its entirety. This is based on the fact that IADCL Workers receive the least basic salaries in the entire Akwa Ibom State Public Service, and the least salary in the aviation sector in Nigeria. Therefore, the IADCL Management should liaise with the Workers’ Unions to engage the HOCS and ensure that this injustice is corrected effective immediately;
v. That the commitment of the IADCL Management to the full implementation of the revised Conditions of Service (COS), especially in respect of PENSION and GRATUITY, and all revised payroll items/ financial obligations is not only non-negotiable, but long overdue. Therefore, that the IADCL Management shall take full responsibility for her refusal to do so up until now;
vi. That the IADCL Account and Finance Directorate must, as a matter of urgency, ensure that wrongful placements of affected personnel are corrected forthwith, and that related remunerations are paid accordingly.
vii. That the Head of Account should commence immediate payment of burial grants and death benefits to affected staff and families of deceased staff respectively.
viii. That the IADCL Management should review downward, the cost of the revised IADCL Staff COS, from Five Thousand Naira ( #5,000.00) to Two Thousand Naira ( #2,000.00) only, given that the AKS Public Service Rules (PSR) which is more voluminous, is sold for Three Thousand Naira ( #3,000.00) only.
ix. The IADCL Management should see to the replacement of vehicles for staff transportation since the existing ones dates back to 2009 and are currently in a rickety state.
x. That Effective immediately, the processes for the 2025 Staff Promotion Exercise should be concluded in IADCL by your Management, because workers will demand to be paid the months/years arrears lost as a result of notional promotion.
ULTIMATUM
5. The decision of the Joint Congress-in-session is:
- That if within Fourteen (14) days from the date of receipt of this Communique, the IADCL Management does not take significant steps to satisfactorily address the above concerns, then the IADCL Workforce shall be left with no other option than to declare an industrial action within the industrial legal framework with dire consequences on the operational activities in the Victor Attah International Airport (VAIA), pending when our demands are satisfactorily met; and
- That mobilization of the workforce for the industrial action has commenced immediately.
Comradely yours,
Signed by,
COMR. Ukeme M. Utuk
Chairman NUATE
COMR. Ubong Samuel
Chairman ATSSSAN
COMR. Ukeme Isaac
Chairman ANAP
