THREE out of the 33 Air Traffic Control officers (ATCs) who took industrial action in March have been terminated by Fiji Airports.
According to Kolokesa Kini —spokesman for the trio — the three were senior officers who individually had more than 20 years of experience under their belt.
He said the decision to terminate them was “questionable”.
He said 25 ATCs had returned to work after an arbitration court ruling and eight had opted to remain outside.
“Last week out of the eight, seven pleaded guilty and I did not,” said Mr Kini.
“Of that seven, four returned to work, while on Monday (May 6) three of my colleagues were handed termination letters instead.”
Mr Kini said the three claimed they met the general manager and chairman of Fiji Airports where they pleaded guilty to charges of absenteeism without lawful excuse, wilful disobedience of lawful orders, and improper conduct/ misconduct.
Finau Gonerogo, one of the three who was terminated, said they had pleaded guilty in the hope of returning to work.
“We (seven of us) pleaded guilty, four returned to work last week and on Monday when our general manager and executive chairman requested a meeting, we knew we were going to go back to work. Little did we know we were going to be terminated,” Mr Gonerogo said.
“There were 27 of us handed suspension letters and Fiji Airports cut it down to eight.
“If they want to terminate us, they should have terminated the whole lot of us.”
The three terminated ATCs will seek advice on their termination.
Fiji Airports communications and public relations manager Christopher Chand described the industrial action as an “unlawful strike”, but said he could not divulge details on their dismissal as they were “bound by confidentiality to employees — current and former”.
“Due process was followed in the multiple disciplinary proceedings pursuant to the Collective Agreement entered into between FPSA (Fiji Public Service Association) and Fiji Airports on December 13, 2017.
“There were numerous factors of differentiation in the conduct of individual controllers who participated in the unlawful strike,” he said.
“Matters of mitigation and aggravating circumstances were taken into consideration when making tough decisions.”
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