Court Hears Dock Workers’ Application, Feb 14

The National Industrial Court sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State presided over by Justice Hamma Polycarp has fixed February 14, 2018 to hear an application for amendment in the originating suit brought by the over 200 workers of BUA Ports & Terminal and PTOL against the Terminal Operators Limited, all in Port Harcourt Seaport.
The BUA Ports & Terminal and PTOL under the aegis of Dock Workers’ Maritime Union of Nigeria had in 2015, dragged their employers, the Terminal Operators Ltd over their refusal to implement and pay them the 2008 national minimum wage as approved by the Federal Government, in violation to the agreement reached by both parties.
At the resumption of the matter, last Monday, counsel to the claimants, Barrister Uche Ogwubu sought the leave of the court to withdraw one of the two applications seeking for interlocutory injunction, adding that the reason was hinged on the fact that the motion had been overtaken by the exigencies of the time.
Ogwudu urged the court to strike out the application while the second application bordering on the amendment of the originating suit was allowed to continue as it was not time bound and would give credence to the subject matter under litigation.
However, in his response, counsel to the defendants in the matter, Barrister Angus Chukwuka urged the court to strike out the application bordering on amendment rather than the interlocutory injunction, because he had replied to the claimants pleas on the point of law.
The defendants’ counsel also urged the court to award cost against the claimants for abandoning their application since 2015.
In his short ruling, the trial judge, Justice Hamma Polycarp, struck out the application for interlocutory injunction based on the claimants’ lawyer’s request to withdraw the application, and also refused to award cost against the claimants as sought by the defendant’s counsel.
He also adjourned the matter to February 14, 2018, for the hearing.
In a related development, the National Industrial Court sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State has struck out a suit filed by the Dock Workers in BUA Ports Terminal Limited against BUA Ports and Terminal Operators Limited.
The trial judge, Justice Hamma Ploycarp struck out the matter after hearing from both counsel in the matter, and upheld the submission made by the defendants’ counsel, Barrister Angus Chukwuka.
It would be recalled that Chukwuka had during his argument, urged the court to strike out the matter because the originating suit was not signed by the claimants’ counsel, and added that such action had made the entire suit defective and inactive.
Responding, the claimants’ counsel, Barrister Uche Ogwudu concurred with the submission as canvassed by the defendants’ counsel, and urged the court to strike out the suit based on what he described as “human errors”.
According to him, striking out the suit would enable them do the needful, and fast-track the hearing of the matter.