Disengaged Dockworkers: NPA, Union Begin Verification Exercise in Lagos

By ZION Olalekan

The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) yesterday kick started a 2-days physical verification exercise to determine number of tally clerks and onboard security men who were laid off in 2015.

Thousands of dockworkers who stormed the Surulere Lagos location of the verification, some of them very aged, however commended the leadership of MWUN, under Comrade Adewale Adeyanju for making the process come through.

Speaking with journalists, Comrade Adeyanju commended the efforts of the Management of NPA headed by Hadiza Bala Usman. He said the verification have been concluded at Port Harcourt, Onne, Calabar and Warri Ports.

Though he could not give the figures, he said the workers were sent off in 2015 as a result of the cancellation of NPA contract with stevedoring companies.

While commending the NPA boss for reaching an agreement with the union on the disengaged tally clerks and onboard security men, Comrade Adeyanju said “She is a wonderful mother and I keep on saying it, women leader are better than men sometimes.

“Since she came on onboard we have been enjoying her, I don’t have any problem with her and we don’t intend to, she has been upright, up and doing in her job, if you put your problems before her, she would study it very well and get back to you and set up a team, this is the result you are seeing today.

“All the Executive Directors at NPA are also wonderful people who have the love of workers at heart” he said

He disclosed that after the termination of the appointment of stevedoring companies with NPA in 2015, the union had gone to court.

He however said on his assumption of office as the President General, he decided to settle out of court.

“The verification has to do with some pending issues we have been having for some couple of years now, the tally clerks and onboard security men where NPA terminated the appointment of the stevedoring contractors, the question was that who would pay their gratuity and terminal benefits”

“The matter was in court, but when I came in as PG I looked at it that there is no way you want to get something from your employer and you are in court, so I asked them to withdraw the case, so we started internal negotiations and these gave berth to what you see today”

He said the tally clerks and onboard security men that have not been paid for three years.

Adeyanju also disclosed that with the new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) recently signed by the National Joint Industrial Council (NJIC) all entitlements and terminal benefits of Nigerian dockworkers will now be paid directly by terminal operators and not the stevedoring companies.

He assured that stevedoring companies were not being sacked from the port, but that certain financial burdens has been taken off their shoulders to further ensure optimal performance to dockworkers especially as regards kitting and others.

On his part, President of the Nigerian Association of Stevedoring Companies, Mr. Bolaji Sunmola disclosed that all contractual obligations of the disengaged stevedoring companies have since been paid by the NPA MD.

Sunmola said the verification of the disengaged workers was coming at the right time, though a bit late.

“But t is better to be late than never, this verification is on the step to ensuring that NPA rights some of the things that were done by the previous administration which was untoward” he said

In the recently signed CBA by the NJIC, Sunmola said though the association had its inputs, but it would be making an official comment on it soon.

He said though the agreement has been signed but the stevedoring group have not read what was signed.