COVID-19: Aviation College places staff on unpaid leave, cuts April salaries 

The International Aviation College, Ilorin (IACI) has sent its workers on leave without pay due to the Coronavirus crisis.

The Kwara State institution has also slashed April salaries.

The school management directed every staff, except a few, to immediately proceed on unpaid leave from Friday, May 1, 2020.

The Rector, Benedict Adeyileka, in a statement, said the action was the effect of the economic crises triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Adeyileka said after a careful deliberation and analysis, IACI management and Governing Council decided to implement between 10-42 percent pay cut for all members of staff across the entire organization for the month of April, 2020 with the exception of staff on or below N80,000 per month.

He lamented that IACI has suffered a sharp decline of 100% in revenue streams since the closure of the college.

Adeyileka disclosed that the institution reached out to the Kwara government to negotiate bailout funds to pay staff salary and other mandatory operational expenses.

“We are awaiting a response. Notwithstanding, some of the measures taken so far have contributed to conserving our limited resources. The outlook for the near future is not encouraging and our current level of funds simply cannot support our operations for much longer.

“Commencing from 1st May, 2020, all staff shall proceed on unpaid leave with the exception of the few required to keep the online lectures going. This position will be reviewed on a monthly basis and communications on further developments will be communicated as the situation evolves.”

Members of the Non-academic Staff Union (NASU) College are grumbling over the development, describing it as “unfair and harsh” in the face of the prevailing economic hardship.

Abdullahi Abdulrahman, the NASU Chairman in a chat with PRNigeria, expressed anger with the college management for not consulting them before taking the decision to slash their salaries.

“We just learnt about the sudden development from a social media post of the Rector. Though, we were not carried along before this decision was taken, the union leadership is making an effort to reach out to the management for a dialogue.”

On their next line of action, he replied: “Unions of nowadays don’t fight with higher authorities anymore. So, we will continue to engage and dialogue with the College management till they accede to our requests.”

He appealed to NASU members to remain calm as officials were on top of the situation and will soon sort things out.

Similarly, a NASU member, Salako Adetunji, expressed dismay over the salary slash and argued that the union should have been notified earlier.