Poaching of Staff Amongst Airlines: Mshelia blames attitude of Nigerian operators 

Nigeria’s aviation industry has been grappling with a growing trend – staff poaching amongst the airlines, a situation that has disrupted the workforce of affected airlines.

Amidst lamentations and demands for a regulatory policy against poaching in the industry, the Chief Executive Officer of West Link Airlines, Capt. Ibrahim Mshelia has said poaching has been a normal practice in the industry because Nigeria is a growing economy and there are no laws for wage control.

He, however, disclosed from his experience as a pilot and an operator that while people are at liberty to switch from one job to another, it is not always about salary. 

According to him, the attitude of some Nigerian operators is “annoying”, as many of them have the habit of giving bogus promises that are never fulfilled.

“Poaching of staff is a usual thing in the aviation industry, even though it’s not a good thing, especially in Nigeria where we don’t have laws on wage control or trend. We are a developing economy. And in a developing economy, people apply whatever it takes to compete. Those complaining must be newcomers in the industry.

“Now, you may not pay the best of salaries, but if you treat your workers well, they won’t leave you. Pilots are gentlemen, they love attention, they love to be respected because the job they do is so demanding. It is not correct that it is because of salaries that people move from one airline to another. I am a pilot, so I speak from that position of strength as operator and pilot. 

“The attitude of operators, particularly in Nigeria, is very annoying. So when a new company comes, people just migrate to the new one hoping to get a better experience. For example, between 2014 and 2015, airlines that came in raised salaries in order to attract people. And airlines before them have done similar. So it is not new,” Mshelia said.

He disclosed further that some operators do not even care to sponsor their crew on recurrency training as they would prefer they train themselves, a situation that brings about disloyalty and lack of commitment.

As an operator, Mshelia said one of the things he has been doing for his crew to earn their loyalty is that he sponsors their recurrency training and engages them on contractual basis.

“What happens also in Nigeria is that operators, excluding myself and a few others that I know, don’t do the right things. You make the crew go and do their recurrency training and come and fly for you. Me, when I employ you, I give you type-rating, if you don’t have, and pay for it. I only tell you to sign a minimum of a three-year contract with me. If you leave, then you have a contract problem on your neck. 

“But most Nigerian operators don’t like contracts. So if you don’t like contracts, you are going to get Jankara business; that’s what it is. So it’s not a new thing that one should begin to say airlines are not serious, some operators are irresponsible and shouldn’t be taken seriously.

“Personally, when I employ you, I train you and pay you well as much as I can. And when you want to go for recurrency training, I pay. For example, I pay my captains business class for official travels of 7 hours and more. I don’t give them economy tickets. This is what I do. I don’t know any airline in this country that does what I do. And that alone makes pilots stay with me, even though I am not the best of payers. No pilot leaves me; they leave at the end of their contracts,” he said.

According to him, most operators don’t like the idea of giving contracts to crew members because they will not be able to live up to their promises.

“The right thing to do is to negotiate with every crew that comes to work for you and give him a contract. You will see that he will not leave. But most operators don’t like giving their crew contracts because they don’t want to keep their promise. And you know, pilots are intelligent people. When you promise them and fail to live up to your promise, they leave as soon as they see any available opportunity,” said Mshelia.

Another worrisome trend amongst operators, according to Mshelia, is the mischievous way of using pilots without paying their salaries in the name of time-building.

“I heard something sometime ago and I really wept. Pilots will go and train themselves and come and be flying for you, and they are not being paid any money because of something you call time-building; that is criminal. If I was an authority, I would ground such an airline,” he said.