Labour Strike: Importers Bemoan Surcharge At Seaports

Importers have incurred demurrage and storage charges worth several millions of naira from shipping companies and terminal operators respectively over the two day strike embarked upon by the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC).

LEADERSHIP reports that for two days, Tuesday and Wednesday, the nation’s seaports were shut by the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN), while enforcing the nationwide strike declared by NLC and TUC.

The NLC and TUC had directed affiliate members to embark on strike over the assault on the president of NLC, Comrade Joe Ajaero, and other Unions’ officials by the government of Imo state.

The unions also disclosed that the continued refusal of government to implement agreements, non-payment of backlog of salaries, pensions, discriminatory payment of salaries and non-compliance to national minimum wage was responsible for the strike.

To this end, MWUN, on Monday Night, directed all Maritime workers to enforce the directive of the national leadership of NLC and TUC, thereby, leading to the shutdown of all seaports across the country.

However, on  Wednesday night, the union leadership after meeting with the national security adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu, called off the strike.

Consequently, the MWUN through the president-general, Comrade Adewale Adeyanju, directed all members to resume work with immediate effect.

However, speaking to our correspondent, clearing agents raised the alarm that demurrage and storage charges worth several million of naira have been incurred by importers on cargoes trapped during the strike action.

The President, Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Emenike Nwokeoji, said Customs agents never expected surcharges on their clients because they are not responsible for the strike action.

Though, he said they have notified the unions of terminal and shipping companies, but insisted that additional charges shouldn’t be passed to importers.

“Before now, we had the terminal and shipping companies unions on notice that whatever happened, we shouldn’t be concerned nor responsible and the Nigerian Shippers’ Council was also notified. Now that the strike action has been called off, we will follow that up.

“This is not the first time a thing like this is happening and we know how it ended. We will give it another trial and ordinarily, we shouldn’t take responsibility for something we didn’t cause. We knew their argument previously and we are still insisting that additional charges shouldn’t be passed to us or our clients because we have no hand in whatever that led to the strike,” Emenike stated.

He stated further that clearing agents were ready to move their cargoes from the ports but were rebuffed by the protesting workers.

The newly elected president stated that some terminal operators weren’t part of the strike action, hence shouldn’t slam storage charges on importers.

“We are not the cause of the disruption. We know that individuals, companies and organisations are going to suffer for these two day strike and in our own case, we are ready to pick our cargoes but no one was allowed to exit the ports, moreover,  some terminals are operating during the strike action so, for those that did operate during the strike, they shouldn’t demand for storage charges,” he said.

Also speaking, the ANLCA public relations officer, Tin-Can Island Port, Onome Monije, said clearing agents are not ready to raise invoices until they are sure they won’t be slammed with storage charges by terminal operators.

She, however, stated that only Tin-Can Island Container Terminal (TICT), has declared the two day strike free period for importers.

Monije, said terminal operators should affect the two free days on their system and not until clearing agents visit their office for cargo clearance.

“Since morning, no one has raised any invoices. We are all waiting to see the outcome but I can confirm that TICT has waived storage charges for the strike period, we are, however, waiting for others. Everyone is afraid because when you raise your invoice, no operator will cancel it and since the strike is not from our side nor is it our fault, we are not expected to be at the receiving end but, we are waiting to see the outcome at the end of the day.

“What we are expecting from them is that we don’t want to surcharge both storage and demurrage. They should remove the storage days, I have so many invoices to raise but I have to wait. They should affect it on their system. We expect to have the free days since we are not responsible for the strike action,” Monije stated.