Workers at the Tin Can Island port-based Ports and Terminal Multiservices Limited otherwise known as (PTML), yesterday embarked on a peaceful protest over the rumoured impending retrenchment in the company.
The protest which started in the morning was still on as at the time of filling this report. Shipping Position Daily sighted about 100 workers chanting different solidarity songs to drive home their point.
Workers at the Tin Can Island port-based Ports and Terminal Multiservices Limited otherwise known as (PTML), yesterday embarked on a peaceful protest over the rumoured impending retrenchment in the company.
The protest which started in the morning was still on as at the time of filling this report. Shipping Position Daily sighted about 100 workers chanting different solidarity songs to drive home their point.
The workers, in their scores held branches of trees and barricaded the main entrance to the company, even as most of them were spotted wearing the company's traditional green and light yellow overall.
The workers described the protest as an in-house, and also said that there is need for management to address the issue before it escalates.
Although security men at the gate did not allow our correspondent into the premises of the concessionaire, one of the workers confirmed to Shipping Position Daily that the terminal operator is about to lay-off hundreds of its workers.
The aggrieved worker (who pleaded anonymity), when asked why the company decided to downsize, noted that the terminal operator has failed to do the needful for those that they want to lay off and this does not go down well with the workers.
All efforts by our correspondent to speak with management of the PTML proved abortive due to the insistence by security men at the entrance gate that no one would be allowed in.
However, the worker further stated that the company came up with a decision to reduce the staff strength, because of the drop in business activities at the terminal.
He attributed the drop in business to the Federal Government policy on vehicle importation, saying that it has negatively affected the company.
He said that the terminal operator failed to handle the issue of planned retrenchment very well, which actually sparked the protest.
Meanwhile, freight forwarders were also affected from transacting their businesses with the terminal operator as a result of the stampede.
Some of them who were not allowed entrance by the security men at the gate vowed not to pay any demurrage to PTML for denying them access into the premises yesterday.
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