Flight Attendants at Arik Air have warned they may soon go on strike, after Nigeria\u2019s largest airline slashed their allowances by more than 70 percent.<\/p>\n
Workers warned all Arik\u2019s 23 planes may be grounded if prompt actions were not taken.<\/p>\n
Before now, Arik Air used to pay their flight attendants N1400 (about $8) per hour in allowances but the airline has scrapped the arrangement and has decided to pay N1500 (about $9) for a one-way trip and N3000 (about $18) for a round trip.<\/p>\n
\u201cA Lagos-New York-Lagos flight is 24 hours. They used to pay us N1400 per hour, which is N33600. Now they say they will just pay us N3000 for the same round trip,\u201d a flight attendant said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithin Nigeria, it was the same thing. Arik Air used to pay us N1400 per hour to any destination. Now they will just pay us N3000 for a round trip even if we spend four hours,\u201d a crew who did not want to be mentioned said.<\/p>\n
Arik Air spokesperson, Banji Ola, said the flight attendants were lying and were \u201cfeeding reporters with lies\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said salaries have just been increased and all workers, including flight attendants, are happy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can confirm that salaries have been increased effective from March across board and everyone is happy in our office,\u201d Ola said.<\/p>\n
But several cabin crew who spoke with our correspondent argued that increasing basic salary while slashing allowances has left them with less money.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one is happy and we may go on strike,\u201d the flight attendant said.<\/p>\n
Some workers seem to have taken their plight to the social media. A message being circulated on blackberry phones on Sunday read;<\/p>\n
\u201cIf this (strike) is allowed to happen, the rippling effect will be massive as Arik Air seem to be the only airline in full operation for now. All those businesses in Abuja, Port Harcourt, Lagos, Dakar, Luanda, Freetown etc will suffer. Passengers to London, New York, Johannesburg will be stranded and that won\u2019t be funny.<\/p>\n
\u201cLabour and government should prevail on Arik to do the right thing now! A word is enough for the wise.\u201d
\nAero Contractors, Nigeria\u2019s second largest airline, is just trying to recover from a strike action that paralysed its activities nationwide for more than two weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Flight Attendants at Arik Air have warned they may soon go on strike, after Nigeria\u2019s largest airline slashed their allowances by more than 70 percent. Workers warned all Arik\u2019s 23…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11870,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n