Lagos State Chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has alleged that some foreign airlines engage in back-catering, a situation where they bring in food from their countries instead of from Nigeria.
The state NLC Chairman, Mrs Funmi Sessi, made the allegation in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Lagos.
She identified the airlines as Egypt Air, Ethiopian Airlines, and Rwanda Air.
Sessi said that preventing local suppliers from providing catering services for the airlines had reduced employment opportunities for the Nigerian populace.
“As part of building the economy and trying to boost the aviation sector following the COVID-19 pandemic, labour through NLC Lagos has discovered that foreign airlines are now in the habit of back-catering.
The NLC chairman said that some of the companies certified by the Federal Government to provide catering services had already retrenched some of their workers and lost percentages of their turnovers.
She listed the companies to include Newrest ASL Nigeria; Pan African Catering Services; Servair Nigeria, and LSG Sky Chefs.
“Servair Nigeria has over 200 workers; Newrest ASL over 600 workers, both in Lagos and Abuja; Servair Nigeria has already retrenched about 80 workers since the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Also, Newrest ASL has retrenched 122 workers, because these airlines are not patronising them.
“Newrest ASL has lost 58 per cent of its turnover, while Servair Nigeria lost 66 per cent,” she said.
Sessi threatened that labour would be forced to take a decisive action if the practice did not stop.
She urged stakeholders in the aviation sector, including the government, to intervene and urgently address the issue.
“Other countries do not allow this practice, so why should ours be different; this means there will be job losses for the workers,” she said.
Efforts to get responses through phone calls and text messages from the management of these airlines proved abortive. (NAN)
