After facing three days of crippling strike in all the nation’s seaports last week, the Nigerian Ports Authourity (NPA) has assured the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) that all outstanding payments to tally clerks and on-board security men will be cleared as soon as all issues surrounding the Treasury Single Account (TSA) are sorted out.
At a meeting between top management of the NPA and the MWUN last Saturday, it was resolved that all issues that led to the strike would be treated with dispatch.
After facing three days of crippling strike in all the nation’s seaports last week, the Nigerian Ports Authourity (NPA) has assured the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) that all outstanding payments to tally clerks and on-board security men will be cleared as soon as all issues surrounding the Treasury Single Account (TSA) are sorted out.
At a meeting between top management of the NPA and the MWUN last Saturday, it was resolved that all issues that led to the strike would be treated with dispatch.
A copy of the communiqué that that was signed after the meeting and which was sent to Shipping Position Daily yesterday contained the latest agreement. It was signed by NPA’s Executive Director, Finance and Administration; Mr Olumide Oduntan and the President General of MWUN; Comrade Tony Nted Emmanuel.
According to the document, it was agreed that: “That all outstanding payments to Tally Clerks and On -Board Security men is a top priority that would be paid as soon as Treasury Single Account issues are resolved”.
Also it was agreed that: “all statutory payments to Nigerian Ports Authority and charges due Stevedoring Contractors on MV HAWK that berthed midstream at Bonny should be paid before the vessel is allowed to sail.
It was on the strength of the communiqué that then strike was later suspended.
Shipping Position Daily recalls that the union had called its members out on the strike mid last week over alleged nine months unpaid wages to over 3,000 Tally Clerks and On-board security men,
The union had also fingered the alleged midstream discharge of vessels in Bonny Rivers, Lagos and other port formations without using registered dockworkers as required by law as one of the grievances.
The union had on October 12, issued a 7-day ultimatum to the management of NPA to stop all midstream discharge of vessels in Bonny Rivers, Lagos and other port formations without using registered dockworkers as required by law, failing which the nation’s ports would be shut.
Explaining reasons for the union’s action, President-General of MWUN, Mr. Tony Emmanuel Nted, had lamented that the issue of unpaid wages to dockworkers especially tally clerks and on board security gangway men, had dragged for too long despite several agreements.
Nted recalled that the last agreement reached with stakeholders including NPA, and Association of Stevedoring Companies, ASC, was on July 9, 2015, at a meeting called by the Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity, which resolved that the workers should be paid before July 30, saying that the deadline had since expired without any payment being made to the affected workers.
On the midstream discharge without using registered Dockworkers, Nted said: “This is illegal and against the Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, Act which stipulates that stevedoring services in our ports, jetties terminal- on and offshore operations must be handled exclusively by registered dockworkers only. This has been going on for a long time and we have brought the attention of NPA management to it to no avail. We believe that some officials of NPA are conniving with some operators to breach the law for personal gains”, he stated.
Discussion about this post