The Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, has advised management of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) to initiate move to have an out-of-court settlement with its disengaged workers.
The presiding Judge, Justice Gladys Olotu, who gave the advice at the resumed hearing of a suit brought against the management of NPA by 530 disengaged workers of the authority, gave the management up to January 27, 2010 to meet and negotiate with the disengaged workers.
Justice Olotu also slammed a fine of N5,000.00 to the management of NPA for failure to appear in court at the first sitting and first hearing on the case, respectively.
Reacting to the decision of the Federal High Court, counsel to the disengaged NPA workers, Mr Odeamuza Awari Osomune said the affected former workers would explore the opportunity given by the court to see if the authority would agree to settle out of court.
“We will explore the opportunity given to us by the court, if NPA agrees to honour it. if NPA agrees to pay the disengaged workers what is due them, then there is no point still being in court,” Mr Osomune said.
It would be recalled that 530 workers of NPA, who were disengaged from the authority in April 2008 had gone to the Federal High Court, Port Harcourt, to protest the refusal of the authority’s management to pay them what is due them as retirement benefits in full.
The disengaged workers had alleged that the management of NPA paid into their various bank accounts less than what they expected as retirement benefits.
Insisting that the management of NPA had at a meeting with the leadership of the Senior Staff Association (SSA) of the authority as well as that of the maritime workers union of Nigeria (MWUN), agreed to pay in full the accrued benefits of the disengaged workers on monetised rate, the workers regretted that two weeks after the meeting, the authority’s management decided to pay in meagre sums into their bank accounts as retirement benefits.