Terminal operators sack workers over low activities at ports

FUNSO OLOJO

A gale of retrenchment has now hit terminal operation at the Lagos ports as most of the staff of the facilities are now being laid off.

Investigations revealed  the due to the drop in import activities which has considerably slowed down the activities at these facilities, the operators have resorted to what they called load shedding in order to remain afloat in the face of the crunching operating environment.

Already, Ports and Terminal Multi-services Limited(PTML), one of the RORO port facilities in the Lagos port and Flour Mills PLC have all sacked some of their staff, mostly those whose services are not considered critical and technical.

It was gathered that mostly affected were dockworkers whose services were being dispensed with due to low vessel traffic.

As a result of this development, the Dockworkers branch of the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) has expressed fear of  further job loss by her members due to lack of activities at the various terminals across the country.

President of the Dockworkers Branch of MWUN; Comrade Adewale Adeyanju, confirmed the sack of some of his members  at PTML and Flour Mills Nigeria Limited which recently sacked some workers.

He disclosed that PTML terminals had sacked MWUN members under Shipping Branch and that 169 dockworkers were equally sacked by Flour Mills Nigeria Limited recently.

The union, through its President, Comrade Adeyanju, has therefore appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to review the rice import policy, the Automotive Policy among others, which they claimed have led to the dearth of vessels coming to the Nigerian ports.

Adeyanju lamented that many rice vessels have deserted Nigerian port for Cotonou port, leaving Nigerian ports empty. He claimed that one of the biggest terminal in the country, APM Terminal, has also experienced vessel decline, adding the terminal usually receives more than 20 vessels in a month which he said has reduced sharply to 15 vessels.

According to statistics from the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), seven vessels usually call at the PTML terminal in a week, but this has reduced to one vessel per week in recent times.

‘’It is not until terminal operators send us letter of downsizing, we have already prepared for downsizing because the job is not coming, we hope that the new administration will make things better to make the life of everybody easy.

‘’We all know that in the port generally now, there is no vessel, we the workers are feeling the pains, there is no job. Imagine APMT, hardly can you get six vessels in one week, APMT that we believe are the number one terminal operator in West Africa, hardly could they stevedore six vessels in a week, this is to tell you it is biting harder and affecting the life of dockworkers.

‘’APMT usually stevedores more than20 vessels in a month  but now, they could hardly get 16, a few weeks back they got only one vessel’’, Adeyanju lamented.

He reiterated that rice-laden vessels have disappeared from Nigerian ports because of the high tariff placed on the commodity by the Federal Government, stressing that majority of the vessels have been diverted to Cotonou Port where he claimed they all queue to discharge their cargo.

According to him, there is need to supplement the rice that is being produced locally in Nigeria due to insufficient local production.

‘’The situation is affecting the economy, the welfare of dockworkers and the maritime sector as a whole, if you go to Calabar and Port Harcourt, there is no vessel, if Lagos is crying of no traffic, what do you expect from the other ports. I receive distress calls all the time, but all we can do is to appeal to the new administration to do something better’’ the chief Docker noted.