• Union Fires Back, Says Most Shipowners Are Portfolio Carriers
Negotiations for new wages between Nigerian shipowners, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and the Merchant Navy officers and Water Transporters Senior Staff Association and the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria under the Nigerian Joint Industrial Council (NJIC) agreement on the condition of service for Nigerian seafarers have hit a brick wall.
Source close to the negotiations confirmed to our correspondents last week that shipowners have turned down a proposal which pegged the monthly salary of a Ship Master at N1.5million.
In retaliation, the union has alleged that most Nigerian shipowners are portfolio carriers without standard and that many of them operate vessels below the required deadweight tonnage.
Confirming the deadlock in a chat with Shipping Position Daily at the end of the tripartite meeting last week in Lagos, National President of the merchant navy union, Engr Mathew Alalade explained that the union is fighting to create a benchmark for the payment of seafarers and that the employers are kicking against most of the proposals.
On the Able Body seamen (AB) at sea, he said the union is proposing N350, 000 basic salary, but that shipowners are bringing it down to N94, 000. As for the master class and captains of vessels, he said the union is proposing N1.5million as basic salary, but that shipowners are insisting on N463, 000.
Alalade said that the union insists and would not compromise on international rates as set down by both the International Transport Federation (ITF) and International Labour Organization (ILO) as it is being applied in other countries of the world.
He told our correspondent last weekend after a second meeting was deadlocked, that a tripartite committee has been set up, made up of the union, the shipowners and NIMASA. According to him, the committee is expected to come up with their report in two weeks and this automatically becomes the law for Nigerian seafarers.
“NIMASA must come hard on the shipowners, for able seaman who are at sea, we are proposing N350,000 and they are bringing it down to N94,000, we are supposed to meet at a meeting point. For master captain it is N463, 000 but we are proposing N1.5million” he said.
Also speaking with our correspondent, Secretary General of the union; Comrade Julius Eforkpo said the shipowners were giving excuses that they don’t have a running contract and this was why they have been unable to secure loans from the banks to transact business.
According to him, the condition of service for seafarers was last reviewed in 2010 and this was supposed to be renewable every two years, he said that the union has been calling for this review since 2014, but it was never granted.
“NIMASA which is the tripartite arbiter had asked all concerned parties to go back home and come back with a better agreement, we expect NIMASA to play the middleman role, once this is done we would look at our economic situation and our environment, we may decide to hold on for a while then we renew later”
“The issue is that most of the shipowners are not standard shipowners, many of them are briefcase shipowners, and there are certain rates that would be added that the briefcase shipowners would not be able to pay. That is why, whenever we do negotiation we always watch the mood of the shipowners and they also watch us”
“The rates vary from ship to ship and sizes to another, so now we want to create a standard and a benchmark so that the shipowners will not go below the benchmark. Most local shipowners are operating very small vessels”
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