Association Pledges To Enhance Dock Workers’ Welfare

President, National Association of Stevedoring Companies, Mr. Bolaji Sunmola said the association would enhance the welfare of its workers due to the hazardous nature of their job.

Sunmola told newsmen in Lagos that there had been a collective bargaining agreement to improve their welfare, saying that the workers now earned wages commensurate with their work.

Reports say that stevedoring companies are employers of dock workers.

According to him, there has been an agreement on the review of the wages of the workers every two years.

“We want the dock workers to be compensated for what they do and port work is hazardous,” Sunmola said.

He said that the era of placing dock workers as casuals had gone in the dock industry, adding that to do that would amount to flouting the rule of the industry.

Sunmola said that the least-paid dock worker earned well above the N18,000 national minimum wage, but he did not disclose the exact amount.

The president further said that the association had made it mandatory for the dock workers to be on pension.

He said that the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) had also made it mandatory for the dock workers to be provided with aprons, safety boots and other equipment.

Sunmola called for an improvement in port infrastructure because of the increase in cargo traffic and the number of ships coming into Nigerian ports.

“The present capacity of ports we have will not be enough to contain the expected cargo if Nigeria is maintaining the standard of industrialisation necessary to push the country forward.

“There would be a need for ports development and improvement of ports infrastructure to facilitate delivery of cargoes,’’ he said.

Sunmola also urged the Federal Government to expand the expressway leading to the Apapa and Tin-Can Island ports to five lanes to solve the traffic problem on the road.