The immediate past President of the Nigerian Merchant Navy Officers and Water Transport Senior Staff Association, Engr. Matthew Alalade has identified inability to change crew members onboard as a major challenge seafarers faced during the lockdown.
Alalade who stated this in an interview with our correspondent in Lagos stated that flights were being hampered, coming to join vessel at that initial time of the lockdown was a problem as each country had to close their borders thereby making it difficult for crew members to move to change those onboard who were due for a change.
He however informed that the challenge was tackled about three weeks ago following an agreement between the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to ease movement for seafarers to join vessels and disembark from vessels as they were on essential duty transporting foods and medicals.
“But before then, there was difficulty, even some owners who were not able to pay outstanding, these crews suffered a lot, they have been abandoned and that made most of the nations to evacuate their nationals to their respective homes.
“So, the challenges we were having that time was to change crew but since IATA and ILO had agreement that there should be ease for seafarers but still, it is not that easy because a Philippino called me about two weeks ago that they wanted to disembark him, that his reliever has come, that he does not know his fate. And I asked him what kind of fate he wants to know, if your reliever is onboard, it means they must evacuate you to a hotel. That is the meaning and until your flight is ready, you should be taken care of adequately. He insisted he will not go down and I told him he must go down since his reliever has come, that they will take care of him, if there is any other thing, he should call me, then I will know what to do.
“In Nigeria too, our maritime agency is up to date. Last two or three months, they disembarked one Indian that refused to go down, there were lots of challenges with that Indian, the owner abandoned them, the owner could not pay them, only him was onboard. So, NIMASA had to make arrangement with Immigration and disembark him with his own set, his union too to a hotel”, he said.
On payment, he observed that once a seafarer disembarked from the vessel and his reliever goes onboard, the seafarer’s payment stops while that of his reliever commences even as he added that “if you have CBA (Collective Bargaining Agreement), if maybe they disembark you to a hotel, until you get home, your payment continues to run.”
He further explained that “In the CBA, there are some clauses there that if you are in a hotel or if you are on transit, they will still be paying you some money. Those are the benefit you have to collect after. That is why you have to have a CBA because those who don’t have CBA, they suffer a lot of loss. But if go onboard and you have CBA according to MLC, those things are itemized there so that if you disembark, before you get to your final destination, there will be some benefits that you have to enjoy. Those things are spelt out there.”
Speaking on the fate of seafarers who had to spend extra days onboard following the inability to proceed home as a result of emergencies like the recent lockdown, Alalade submitted that “those days that accrued are spelt out in your CBA. It is spelt out there that if you spend extra days on transit, it must be spelt out. That is why you must have CBA, if you don’t have CBA, then you suffer a lot of loses. That is why we say before you go onboard, have a standard CBA. CBA spelt out all these things. As you are going to your hotel, the food they give you, the allowance they give you, the days you spent in your hotel are all spelt out there until you get to your home.
“You have CBA and you have your union, you revert back to your union. Those days that you spent in your hotel, there are some benefits attached to it. You are still on transit, this is an emergency situation, the union has to negotiate with the owner, they have to have an understanding, maybe you spent ten days and the owner will say I cannot pay for that ten days, this is an emergency situation, then they may reach agreement for the owner to pay for five days. The seafarer must not lose out.
“That is why you must have CBA because if anything goes wrong, the management or the ship owner will be in consultation with the union and the union, when the management is in distress, we are also managing with him also in distress. He comes, we negotiate and when it gets better again, it is time for you to smile to our members. So, we understand that this is emergency situation now. So, we will tell the seafarer this is what it entails, the owner too did not envisage this lockdown, this is what he is able to and so, we come to an agreement.”
He believed that most of the people who had outstanding were people who did not have a CBA explaining that if one had CBA, there was no way his outstanding would be longer than necessary.
“You must have CBA with you, if you don’t have CBA, that is where the management or ship owner cheats on the seafarer. That is why I said when the owner distresses you, we are with you. There is some CBA that they don’t increase every two years, they come down, we have some companies that we have to come back ten percent, we told our members it is not rosy, yes, the company is going down, let show some understanding, go back to minus ten percent and they agree instead of us to say if you don’t increase our CBA after two years, then the company is no more, who is going to lose? So, we want the company to remain afloat so we can come to some understanding with the management.
On the welfare of the seafarers, Alalade maintained that the seafarers were better off these days because most of them were now coming to understand that they must have CBA as it was a tripartite thing that involved the government, the seafarers and their union and the owner of the vessel.
“It is a gradual thing unlike those days they will go and sign any vessel and the owner cheats them, they don’t pay them for months. But if they have CBA, the union will come in; there is no way they should owe you for more than three months. It is an abomination! How can they owe you for two months and the union will not talk?” he queried.
Photo: Former President, Nigerian Merchant Navy Officers and Water Transport Senior Staff Association, Engr. Matthew Alalade.
Send your news, press releases/articles to augustinenwadinamuo@yahoo.com. Also, follow us on Twitter @ptreporters and on Facebook on facebook.com/primetimereporters or call the editor on 07030661526, 08053908817.
