Labour suspends planned ports shut-down

MARITIME Workers Union of Nigeria, MWUN,
yesterday, suspended the plan to shut down
the nation’s ports starting from today over
eight months unpaid salary arrears to members
of the dockworkers branch of the union,
following an agreement with the management of Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA.
This came as the union dismissed claims by
NPA that it had paid 56 per cent of monies
owed dockworkers, saying NPA was being
economical with the truth.
President-General of MWUN, Mr. Anthony Emmanuel Nted said: “It is not true that NPA
paid 56 per cent of monies owed dockworkers. What the NPA paid through Stevedoring
Company is even less than three months. The
NPA released about N400 million to the
contractor to pay over 1, 400 dockworkers. But
the same NPA released N300 million to its own
contractor, “Cargo Surveyor” to pay about 100 workers which it hired.”
Meanwhile, following a meeting between the
management of NPA and MWUN leaders, after
government waded and directed that the
contending issue be resolved, the pending
industrial unrest was suspended. It was gathered that NPA team led by the
Executive Director, Finance and Administration,
Mr. Olumide Oduntan, agreed to pay the
balance of the five months before November
15, and that the January to March had been
paid to employers of the workers (tally clerks and onboard security), Wednesday. Confirming the development, President of
Dockworkers’ branch of MWUN, Adewale
Adeyaju said the union would hold a meeting
this morning to brief the workers on the
development.