Dockworkers to smile home soon as NPA pledges to settle debts before Christmas

                                                        
Embattled tally clerks and dockworkers currently fighting for wages may actually be walking into a promising Yuletide, as the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA)  pledged to settle all outstanding arrears of wages not later than December 15, 2015, when the controversial contract would be terminated.

The NPA Executive Director, Marine and Operations of NPA, David Omonibeke who indicated this, also told his audience comprising a joint representatives of government agencies and stevedoring companies, that the Authority was tired of intermittent work stoppages and was therefore determined to see the workers paid.

The meeting had in attendance, representatives of NPA, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), the Federal Ministry of Transport (FMOT), the Nigerian Shippers’ Council, terminal operators, stevedoring companies and Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN).

“Our meeting is to enable the agencies, the ministry, to make inputs on the best way forward.
“So we hope to get positive answers,’’ highlighted Omonibeke, noting that his interaction with them would be a continuous one, thereby leaving no room for further short-changing of government revenue.

“Government is making efforts that before the expiration of the contract, the right organisations or the terminal operators would be responsible for payment of the services of tally clerks and on-board security men.

“Bills are processed and the ports authority wants to make sure that before the contract ends, it will be able to sort out the outstanding bills before Dec. 15″, he stated further.

Speaking in the same vein, the Executive Director, Maritime Labour and Cabotage Services of NIMASA, Barr. Callistus Obi, lauded attendees for baring their minds in the overall interest of the maritime industry; and commended the regulators for approaching issues from professional angles, especially in view of its enabling Act.

“Our interest is for everybody to operate within the ambit of our laws.

“NIMASA’s position is clear. It is predicated on Section 37, Sub-Section 1, A, B, C, D, of the NIMASA Act which mandated us to intervene on issues relating to dispute on welfare and wages of dockworkers in any ports in Nigeria.

“We have regulatory powers which include sanctions; where the dockworkers fail,’’ Obi stated, just as Comrade Bolaji Sunmola, the President of the National Association of Stevedoring Companies (NASC) noted that the assembly was meant to address the issue of whether tally clerks should stay or not.

“Our position still remains that payment should be made as and when due and that NPA should be responsible for the payment of tally clerks and on-board security men,’’ Sunmola posited, maintaining the body was going to hold the NPA to its pledge of paying stevedores of offsetting the outstanding 60% arrears, because the 40 % so far paid was peanuts.