Maritime workers wins as Court orders Intels to pay 599 contract staff extra gratuity

The Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) under the leadership of Comrade Adewale Adeyanju has won the court case against Intels, leading oil and gas logistics company.

A statement by MWUN Head of Media, Comrade Kennedy Ikemefuna said the court has ordered Intels and its subsidiary Associated Maritime Services (AMS), to negotiate with the union and pay extra gratuity to 599 contract staff affected by a redundancy exercise.

Intels, who is the principal employer of the AMS contract staff, had initially paid redundancy extra – gratuity to its 34 permanent staff but refused to negotiate with the union to pay the same amount to the contract staff affected by the same redundancy exercise.

The court also ruled that it was wrong for the Industrial Arbitration Panel (IAP) to agree to state the amount workers should be paid without negotiation; hence, the trade dispute that was declared by the Union because of Intels’ refusal to come for a round table negotiation.

The court ordered Intels and AMS to return to the negotiating table with MWUN so that the unpaid extra – gratuity be given to the affected workers as was initially called for by the Union.