…accuse NPA of flouting tally clerks payment agreement
By Joy Enamuna
The Dockworkers branch of the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) has raised the alarm that some stevedoring companies operating inside Nigeria’s seaports don’t have ambulance.
Revealing this to journalists, President of the Dockworkers branch of MWUN, Comrade Adewale Adeyanju stated that the labour union will soon be picketing some stevedoring firms that lack up to date safety equipment inside the seaports.
According to him, “some service providers who work under the terminal operators at the seaports don’t have up to date safety equipment. Some don’t even have ambulance and we are going to picket some of them very soon.
“Like some stevedoring contractors under the terminal operators which I will not like to mention their names now, their ambulance is not up to standard. We are talking about the third parties in the job chain at the seaports, the stevedoring contractors; they are the ones who are responsible for the welfare of the workers under them. Some dockworkers work with them, yet their ambulance is nothing to write home about.
“We have noticed some of the ambulances are sub-standard and we will be going about to inspect this safety equipment. When we go around, we will then make public the names of the stevedoring contractors who operate sub-standard equipment at the seaport.”
On the implementation of payment to tally clerks recently agreed with the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), he explained that some of their members are yet to get paid.
“As I am talking to you now, the tally clerks salaries have not been paid. We had earlier issued out a fourteen day ultimatum which has elapsed, but due to the promise of the NPA management and the involvement of the Ministry of Transport then, that was why we shelved our strike.
“There was a communiqué which we signed with them on the payment, and that is almost a month ago, yet they have not started making payment. We are still keeping our arms crossed and will react when our patience elapses,” he stated.
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