Some ATS staff have returned to work after signing letters admitting their mistake - ATS Chairman

Some staff of the Airport Terminal Services have returned to work after signing the letters admitting that they had made a mistake abandoning their work last Saturday.

This was confirmed by the Chairman of ATS Riyaz Sayed-Khaiyum who says that he does not have the exact number of workers that have actually signed the letter.

He says they want everyone back so that operations normalize at ATS.

Sayed-Khaiyum says he had spoken to the striking workers that they can come back if they sign the letters saying that they had made a mistake when they left their workstations during working hours to attend a shareholders meeting on Saturday and they also give the management the right to take disciplinary action if they may wish to do so and it will not result in the termination of their employment.

He says workers that have come back have seen the error of their ways.

Sayed-Khaiyum says that it is believed that if this continues then the officials and the representatives of the workers are absconding their duties by leading people off work.

The Chairman adds this is costing hundreds and thousands of dollars extra to keep the airport working.

Sayed-Khaiyum says that ATS Employees Trust or ATSET and the Trust Secretary, Vili Finau does not recognize him as chair but still called him for a meeting with the striking workers earlier this week.

Sayed-Khaiyum says talks continue in Nadi to reach a resolution.

He says there is minimum disruptions in operations as they are pushing forward.

Sayed-Khaiyum says this issue is also very quickly turning into a political circus as politicians are involved with the workers.

Riyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says operations at the Nadi International Airport is continuing with the assistance of Fiji Airways, Air New Zealand, CAAF, chefs from Hilton, AFL and FNU.

He says they have around 639 staff of which 300 are still outside the premises.

Meanwhile, Sayed-Khaiyum says three Directors of the ATS Board were fired because of a huge conflict of interest.

He says the Chairman of ATS Employees Trust Jay Dhir Singh was removed because he had applied for the ATS CEO’s position while sitting in the board and Singh had also wanted the current CEO to be removed.

Sayed-Khaiyum says last week Singh was interviewed for the second time for the CEO’s position and ATS board wants it to be a transparent process.

He says you cannot have a board member calling for the removal of the current CEO and also applying for the CEO’s position.