The National Joint Industrial Council (NJIC) in December 2018 signed a new agreement for the upward review of the welfare of Nigerian dockworkers. The agreement was signed by Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), the terminal operators represented by Seaport Terminal Operators Association of Nigeria (STOAN) and the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN). In this interview with Shipping Position Daily correspondent; Dapo Olawuni, President General of MWUN, Comrade Adewale Adeyanju spoke on the benefits of the new agreement and plans to extend same benefits to Nigerian seafarers.
“The minimum wage now as a dockworker when you are coming into the job is N50,000”
Congratulations on the new NJIC agreement that was signed for dockworkers recently, how will it affect the workers?
The agreement we were having before cannot take care of pension, terminal benefit or gratuity, but there is a pro rata we have done now, if you have spent one to two years at the port, you are entitled to N150,000, if you are up to four or five years, you are entitled to N270,000, if you are up to 10 years, you are entitled to N700,000 or N800,000. If you are having up to 800 workers in your terminal and they want to leave, it is the stevedoring contractor that is taking all the responsibility, but they would not be able to pay, this is the agreement that we have adjusted and signed now, it would lead to 65% progress for dockworkers. All benefits for the dockworkers should come from the terminal operators, the important part of the new NJIC agreement is the take-home for dockworkers when they are being retired, we didn't have it in the past, they didn't have any gratuity, terminal benefit or pension, but now, this agreement has restructured most of these things.
Tell us about the verification of tally clerks and onboard security men all over the country?
The verification has to do with issues we have been having for a couple of years now on the tally clerks and onboard security men, the appointment of the stevedoring contractors was cancelled and there was nobody to pay gratuity and benefit to the dockworkers. The matter was in court, but when I came in as PG, as said No, there is no way you want to get something from your employer and you are already in court, so I withdrew the case from court and decided to have an internal negotiation, this is what gave birth to the verification. The team went to Port Harcourt, Calabar, Onne and Warri, they have done physical verification of tally clerks and onboard security men that have not been paid for almost two years. After the verification, the next thing is for payment to begin.
Can we know the actual number of dockworkers involved in this exercise?
I don't want to pre-empt the assignment of the committee, until they give us a blueprint of all the affected dockworkers all over Nigerian seaport, then we would be able to tell you the actual figure.
Who is responsible for the payment of these accrued wages, is it the terminal operators?
It has got nothing to do with the terminal operators, I think it is the NPA who engages the stevedoring contractors, the same NPA terminated the appointment of the stevedoring contractors, then we are now asking that who pays the workers that have been working under them for a couple of years now? In the wisdom of the Nigerian Ports Authority led by the Managing Director, Hadiza Bala Usman, in her own wisdom as a mother, she believes that they (tally clerks and onboard security men) are Nigerians and we cannot just ask them to get out of the port, this is why she asked for their verification so that we can know who they are, after the verification, we would now sit and determine how much we are going to pay them.
What is your assessment of the NPA MD in view of the foregoing?
She is a wonderful woman and I keep on saying it, some of us when we are praying for children, we always ask for a male child, we have forgotten that women are better than some men. Since the MD came onboard, we have been enjoying her, I don’t have any problem with her and I don’t intend having any problem with the woman, she has been upright, she has been up and doing in her job, if you put your problem before her, she would study it very well and get back to you, she would set up a team to tackle the problem and all her team members are wonderful, the Executive Director of Finance and Administration, and the Executive Director; Marine and Operations, they are wonderful people who have the love of the workers in their heart.
Some dockworkers have complained that they are not well-kitted when working at the terminals
The new NJIC agreement we signed has covered all these areas, if I am well paid in remuneration as a stevedoring company, I will be able to provide all the items you mentioned as kits for the dockworkers; the kits, safety boots, nose covers, overall work clothes and so on. But when I am are not well paid, I won’t be able to provide all these amenities, this is why we said that this agreement is on the terminal operators because they need to enhance the stevedoring contractors they are engaging, they should pay them their royalty so that they could be able to take care of the welfare of their workers and provide all these kits and uniforms, but when they are being paid peanuts, they would not be able to meet up. At some terminals for the past couple of years now, they have been using only one uniform, but this new agreement has taken care of that. Let me reiterate that any terminal operator that reneges on this NJIC agreement is on his own, at the same time, the NIMASA needs to wake up and do enforcement, the enforcement needs to be there, very soon we would go round all the terminals to ensure and enforce the kitting of workers who are our members. When you go to some terminals, you would see them wearing rubber slippers, this is not ideal, if you go to foreign countries you cannot see this, you cannot even enter their terminal without safety boots. The agreement we just signed covers almost all sections of port operations.
As the ITF Chairman on seafarers’ forum in Nigeria, how has this new position rubbed off on Nigerian seafarers?
When a new leader comes into power, he needs to study the environment that covers his new assignment, I want to assure the seafarers that very soon, the benefits that the dockworkers are about enjoying today, we would extend it to the seafarers. Today, thousands of seafarers are languishing in jail, we don’t even know their employers, their Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) has not been signed by the shipowners, they have refused to sign the agreement even though the unions have signed their part, the NIMASA has also done their best, but the shipowners are still adamant and that is why we have said, the chairman of the NJIC, Alhaji Gambo has been using his wide experience to make sure that he brings everybody closer for us to have a CBA for seafarers. If the NJIC agreement we have now for dockworkers extends to the seafarers, I don’t think shipowners would be using Filipinos to be doing the job of Nigerian seafarers, the shipowners know what they are doing, what they are paying the Filipinos, they cannot give it to Nigerian seafarers. The Filipinos have taken over our jobs, this is the burning issue on my table now and I will start waging war against them.
Your sister union has said that manning agents are no longer relevant in the scheme of things for seafarers, do you agree?
They cannot say that manning agents are not relevant, they are part of the people that engage the services of the seafarers, they employ the seafarers, you cannot ask the union to go and sign CBA with manning agents, this is why we need the shipowners, you have seen what we did for the dockworkers, we signed the CBA with the terminal operators, and we are praying that the stevedoring contractors working under them should be enhanced, they should increase the rate they are being paid so that the welfare of the dockworkers would be taken care of.
If I want to sign the CBA now and you are bringing manning agents for me to sign with, you are flouting the rules, because tomorrow, the shipowner might sack the manning agent, so who pays the seafarer? We are going to meet with NIMASA and make sure we thrash out these areas, they should sign this CBA for our seafarers, and it is long overdue.
How soon should we expect this to come up?
As soon as work resumes, we would pay a courtesy visit on the chairman of the CBA, Alhaji Gambo whom in the industry today we have respect for him, he is an old man with intelligence, if he could pilot the affairs of NJIC for dockworkers and we are able to get close to 65 per cent of the agreement, I think he can equally do the same for seafarers, he is going to offer us advise. The seafaring is an international job just like the dockworkers too, so if one part is enjoying and benefitting, the other part should benefit also.
Does that mean that the N50, 000 minimum wage for dockworkers starts immediately?
It is on arrears, it is backdated, we are going to break it down, it is even more than that, but the minimum now as a dockworker when you are coming into the job is N50,000, on the maximum, some people have been upgraded more than N50,000, what we have now said is that even if you have been paying higher as a terminal operator, you have to pay an additional per cent, this has not been happening before, they were just paying the dockworkers a stagnated amount of salary of N30,000 for several years, but this time around we have kicked against it and it is being reviewed upwards, the minimum now is N50,000”.
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