Samuel AwoyinfaMaritime Workers Union of Nigeria has issued a two-week ultimatum to the Federal Government to compel the International Oil Companies to pay all outstanding bill on stevedoring owed dockworkers, which it claimed was over a year. The union asked the Federal Ministry of transportation to within the next 14 days address the issue or the nation’s ports would shut down. The statement read in part, “We want to use this medium to intimate you and the Federal Government of the non-payment of the stevedoring wages to dockworkers by the International Oil Companies operating in Nigeria. We are aware that on June 1, 2018, the Nigerian Ports Authority appointed stevedoring contractors to provide stevedoring services at various offshore jetties and onshore locations to the International Oil Companies and other operators. The union added, “The position of the operators on NPA’s directive is worrisome and very surprising because the same operators had processed and paid the former stevedoring contractors since 2010 through a foremost terminal operator.

Source: Punch June 14, 2019 01:34 UTC