By Bashir Bello

Protesting workers of the Nigerian Meteorological Agency, NiMet, have disrupted activities at the Malam Aminu Kano International Airport, for some hours.

It was gathered that the workers were protesting the non-implementation of the new minimum wage.

A source at the airport confirmed that the development led by the Amalgamated Union of Public Corporation, Civil Service Technical and Recreational Employees caused delays and cancellations in several scheduled flights at the airport.

A source who spoke via phone interview said the union forced NiMet staff out of the office and locked up the manager of the Kano office, who refused to vacate the premises to register displeasure over the non-implementation of the new national minimum wage.

“As you know flights are determined by weather and NiMet is the one providing weather information to pilot. So, even though some flight operations are still going on but the protest has affected many flights,” the source said.

Timothy Meshelia, the Northwest Zonal Chairman of the Amalgamated Union of Public Corporations, Civil Service Technical and Recreational Employees, also confirmed that the protest disrupted several flights at the airport on Wednesday.

“The protesting staff are accusing the management of NiMet of failing to implement the N30,000 and N70,000 minimum wage, non-payment of staff allowances, ignoring requests to include omitted staff in past payments, and neglecting key training programs, among other issues.

“The association has given the management one month to implement the new minimum wage or face industrial action,” he stated.

As of the time of filing this report, MAKIA officials had yet to make any official statement about the development, but it was gathered that normalcy and activities had since been restored in the airport.

Vanguard News