LAMNALCO Dues: Merchant Navy Association Carpets NUPENG

The running legal tussle between the Nigerian Merchant Navy Water Transport Officers Senior Staff Association (NMNWTSSA) and the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) over who should collect dues from staff of the company has finally been settled.
Assistant National Secretary of the merchant navy association, Mr. John Okpono confirmed to Shipping Position Daily last week that the association has secured a court ruling at the National Industrial Court (NIC) in its favour and that this has finally put an end to the controversy.

The running legal tussle between the Nigerian Merchant Navy Water Transport Officers Senior Staff Association (NMNWTSSA) and the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) over who should collect dues from staff of the company has finally been settled.
Assistant National Secretary of the merchant navy association, Mr. John Okpono confirmed to Shipping Position Daily last week that the association has secured a court ruling at the National Industrial Court (NIC) in its favour and that this has finally put an end to the controversy.
According to him, the case had started last year when the association noticed that staff of LAMNALCO, a marine service company based in Port Harcourt had been paying membership dues unknowingly to NUPENG for the past 18 years.
“Early last year we wrote to them that they are supposed to belong to us and the company replied us that they are in our support and that they are ready to join us, but the NUPENG/PENGASSAN people refused” Okpono said.
Okpono said that the case had dragged on at the arbitration court for six months before the court decided to direct the case to the National Industrial Court on grounds that it does not have jurisdiction over such matters.
“The NIC have however ruled that the Merchant Navy are the right people to collect dues from LAMNALCO because they provide marine services to oil and gas companies, so from now on the staff of the company will be paying their dues to us and that NUPENG should pay us a fine of N50,000”