Turkish Airlines says, it will not tolerate any fraudulent activities among its employees.
This is why, it took the decision to dismiss some staff members belonging to the National Union of Air Transport Employees NUATE.
This is coming on the heels of the recent picketing by the airline in Lagos by members of NUATE and the Lagos State, Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, insisting the dismissed staff be reinstated.
The picketing which commenced Tuesday has so far led many of the Turkish Airline passengers stranded in Nigeria and Istanbul at the airports.
According to the airline, the employees in question were involved in ticket racketeering and other violations of ticketing reservation policies, causing significant financial losses of over $600,000.
The airline’s statement revealed that the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), which represents the affected employees, was invited to participate in the disciplinary committee. After presenting irrefutable evidence of the employees’ wrongdoing, it was determined that the employees were guilty of gross misconduct and should be terminated.
The airline offered the employees the option to voluntarily resign, which three of the seven affected employees took advantage of.
However, the remaining four employees who initially expressed interest in resigning later declined to do so.
Despite the airline’s compliance with the disciplinary process, NUATE refused to sign off on the disciplinary action against the erring employees.
Turkish Airlines has made it clear that it has zero tolerance for illegal and wrongful actions and will take all necessary legal steps to address the situation.