COVID-19: Arik Cut Staff Salaries, Air Peace And Others Place Workers On Compulsory Leave Without Pay

As the airline industry across the world continues to take a beating following the suspension of most local and international flights, Nigeria’s largest commercial airline, Arik Air, on Thursday informed staff it would cut the salaries of its employees by a whopping 80 percent.

In an internal memo, the airline’s Chief Executive Officer, Roy Ilegbodu, informed employees that the management of the company has also decided that at least 90 percent of its workers will proceed on indefinite leave without pay from May 1. 2020.

In the memo, Ilegbodu lamented that the outbreak of the pandemic has placed the company in an unimaginable financial strait that is unlikely to ease anytime soon.

He said the company revenue stream has plunged by 98 percent and the financial downturn has been made worse by the drop in the value of the naira and the dip in the price of oil.

“To date, the situation created by the COVID-19 pandemic remains dire with a high level of uncertainty, even within medical circles regarding the containment of the pandemic. Although daily updates from a few countries seem to be encouraging,

our situation in Nigeria appears to be getting worse. With the current observed trend of events, it is prudent to lean on the assumption that the situation is likely to persist for a while longer.

“Of huge significance to us is that we have suffered a sharp decline of over 98% in our revenue streams since the suspension of our scheduled flights almost four weeks ago. Added to this is the rapid decline in the value of the Naira by over 35% against the benchmark and with oil prices now falling well below $15 per barrel, it is evident that we must, without further delay, take decisive action to preserve our organization,” he wrote.

As a result of these, the CEO said, the company has tried to save cost by renegotiating rates with its suppliers and contractors and has also “implemented contingency plans for staff and introduced operational support flexibility.”

He said though these measures have led to a reduction of expenditure, “the outlook for the near future is not encouraging and our current level of business simply cannot support our operations for much longer.”

“For this reason, to safeguard the survival of our organization, we are constrained to introduce additional measures to curtail our costs, as dictated by the turn of events.

“After careful deliberation and analyses, management has decided to implement an 80% pay cut for all members of staff across the entire organization for the month of April 2020. Furthermore, commencing from May 1st 2020, no less than 90% of our staff will proceed on leave without pay until further notice.”

He, however, explained the decision will be reviewed monthly and the company’s human resources department will keep workers informed about future decisions reached.

On Friday morning, employees of the airline subsequently received two memos from the company’s HR department. The first memo explained that during the compulsory leave, the company’s health insurance scheme [HMO] shall continue to run.

The second memo explained that while all staff have been placed on compulsory leave without pay, staff involved in the company’s charter operation were excluded from the restructuring.

When reached for comment, the spokesperson of the airline, Ola Banji, confirmed the action.

“All I can tell you now is that yes, it is true,” he said.

Sources close to the aviation industry told African Travel Times that all the airlines have also done what Arik Air just did yesterday.

Dana Air paid half salary to its almost 700 workers for the month of March and told staff not to expect salary in the month of April.

Meanwhile, over 2,000 workers of Air Peace are not isolated from the heat in the industry as they have been informed not to expect salaries in April.

In an internal memo by Allen Onyema, Chief Executive Officer of Air Peace to staff, he said ‘’ Air Peace and other airlines in Nigeria are not immune from the devastating effects of COVID-19’’

‘’As a result of all the above and, for this airline to remain an airline tomorrow, we must implement certain unavoidable measures now and in the immediate’’

Onyema also said in the memo that If other bigger and well-established airlines are implementing survival strategies, it would be very foolish of us to do otherwise.

Azman Air was also said to have issued a circular to all its workers to go on compulsory leave without pay. The memo on compulsory leave without pay by Azman Air Services Limited, issued on March 25, was signed by the General Manager, Alhaji Lawan Suleiman.