Unpaid benefits: We won’t abandon you, Labour assures disengaged seafarers, beneficiaries

According to the MoU, “After exhaustive deliberations, a nine man committee was set up to verify those who have been paid and audit payment and cost (the rate used in the payment), to determine those that are dead and date of demise and those alive, and seek guidance from Pension Transitional Administration Department, PTAD, for the payment of their pensions.

“The committee is to work and report back in two months. The meeting  reconvened on the 10th of July, 2023.”

Speaking more on the issue, President-General of MWUN, Prince Adewale Adeyanju, said: “There was meeting in Abuja, where the Ministries of Transportation and Labour, as well as the union were involved. A communiqué was issued setting up a committee to take the record of the aged seafarers.

“We, as a union, have set up our committee to do physical verification of all retirees and aged seafarers, so that if necessary, we can compare with our data.

“We are on course with the aged seafarers to ensure that all their benefits are paid to them. This include those that have died. It is part of the communiqué we signed with the government. They will pay to their next of kin.”

Destitution

Earlier, Prince Adeyanju had drawn the attention of the Federal Government to the worsening living condition of former employees of the defunct NNSL, saying they now live like destitute.

He lamented that the continued delay in the payment of pensions and other benefits of former employees of NNSL since 2008, despite a subsisting court order, has remained unbelievable.

According to him, the protracted delay in the payment of the benefits to the former staff of the defunct NNSL as well as placing them on monthly pension have left many of the aged senior citizens frustrated, besides untimely death.

Adeyanju said: “The aged seafarers and former workers of the Nigerian National Shipping Line, are dying daily and in droves. I know what they are passing if not that some of them have responsible relatives, many of them would have died.

“I will be going to Abuja to see the Minister of Transportation over the matter. In fact, I want to know the outcome of the committee he set up to work out how they are going to be paid. We have subsisting court judgement that ordered the government not pay their gratuities, other benefits and put them on monthly pensions.

“The court judgement is clear. These senior citizens have suffered untold hardship. They spent their productive lives for this country and they deserved their benefits. We will stop at nothing to ensure that they get their benefits.”