Some seafarers are ignorant of CBA agreement – NMNOWTSSA

The Nigerian Merchant Navy Officers and Water Transport Senior Staff Association (NMNOWTSSA) said it needed to educate members of its group on the contents of the recently signed Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) with ship owners and Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA).

Recall that seafarers last week, signed a Collective Bargaining Agreement with ship owners  on international standard wages to be domiciled in Nigeria.

The group had expressed displeasure over delay for two years in signing of the document which they accused ship owners to be responsible for.

Speaking with our correspondent in Lagos on Wednesday, the Secretary General of the group, Comrade Julius Efokpor said that plans are underway to educate members on what the agreement entails.

Efokpor said that most of the members are yet to know or understand that the union has signed an Agreement on their behalf.

“Right now, many of them don’t know that they have a right at all and it is very important that we carry out a sensitization program for them to know.

“It is important for members to know what belongs to them that is, the content of the CBA. If you go into the industry, you will discover that many do not know that they have a CBA.

“The document is ready for public consumption.

“It is ready for public consumption but what is delaying it now is NIMASA because the signed pages will have to come in book form. They just want to collate it now and bind it so that it can be ready for public consumption”

The union however did not state the date of the sensitization but maintained that it will soon come up because if its necessity.

“The sensitization will commence as soon the document is ready for public consumption,” he noted