MWUN Issues 21 – Day Ultimatum To Employers Of Labour Over Failure To Register Workers With NSITF

Maritime Workers’ Union of Nigeria has issued 21 days ultimatum to terminal operators, ship owners, shipping line agencies and other employers of labour in the industry to regularise the register of workers in the National Social Industrial Trust Fund (NSITF)

 

The union President General Comrade Adewale Adeyanju at an event recently, stated that some employers under-declare the number of staff in their payroll to avoid paying the necessary dues to the NSITF thus negates the Acts establishing the Trust Fund institute.

 

The union’s helmsman, who is a board member of  NSITF, said he had directed the presidents of the four branches to write all their employers to register with the fund and regularise the list of workers enrolled with the pension body.

He maintained that the enlightenment by representatives of the fund has opened the understanding of the union and has discovered that some employers deliberately skip names of their employees in the register of NSITF in order to evade remitting necessary amount to the coffers of the fund and sometimes, fail to pay what is due to workers in case of accidents.

 

“There are some workers that they are not deducting their pension in line with the law and even when they deduct it, they don’t remit as at when due

 

“So, the pension administrator needs to look into the mistakes of the past

“I have given directives to the presidents of the four branches of MWUN to issue ultimatum to all their employers who have not complied or registered with NSITF.

His words, “This is the first of its kind in the industry. NSITF was formed as a child of necessity to take care of all the workers in Nigeria in terms of accident, injury or even gratuity

“I am a  member of the board of NSITF and anytime they call the names of the people that want to give out money to, I dont get to hear the names of maritime industry organisations and it occurred to me to ask the board chairman what was happening that NSITF is not heard in maritime and the area where I work is a peculiar area where accidents happen.

 

“The program is an eye opener even to me too because there are some areas that we have been handling with our employers which are supposed to come from NSITF and they are hiding at the back of NSITF and giving us nothing out of what they collect from NSITF.

“It is a welcome development to all our members and we have asked them to extend it to out-port too because we have Calabar, Warri and Onne.

“We want to know those that have complied and the ones that have not so that they can go and register with the trust fund.

“They are losing as well as the workers as a result of their ignorance and I think now that our eyes are opened, we have to ask them to pay what they have not been paying to the workers.

“Some of the employers under-declare the number of staff so that they can reduce what they pay to the government so we need to know the number of dockworkers registered

Earlier, the General Manager, NSITF, Lagos Region, Mr. Abdullateef Musa told our correspondent that the enlightenment program was one among many.

He lauded the initiatives of the leadership of MWUN for calling the attention of the Funds to the industry even as he added that the enthusiasm from the union would make the job easier and faster for the Trust Funds administrators.

He said, “What I witnessed today is unprecedented, the cooperation, contributions, the knowledge and 5he force to assist NSITF to achieve its mandate is very great.

“The union is the major beneficiary of the program of NSITF pension scheme because that is what the union stands for the welfare of the workers.

“This is an enlightenment and knowledge and the benefit is well taken and known and this one is putting us on the cruise and we will do the job with little or no efforts because the key-in of the maritime workers has done the job for us and that is what we yearn for.

“We have promised that we will not disappoint them and the employees will be covered and get benefits from whoever they work for,” he maintained.