Shipping Branch of the Maritime Workers’ Union of Nigeria has frowned at what it described as the continuous casualisation of workers by employers of labour within the maritime sector.This was contained in a statement on Friday by the Head of Media at MWUN, John Ikemefuna. According to the statement, the Shipping Branch President of MWUN, Olufemi Abass, described the current labour practices in the shipping sector as a slave-driven ideology that prioritises corporate profit over human dignity.Abass stressed that many employers are now bypassing labour regulations by outsourcing core duties to third-party contractors. He emphasised that these contractors offer peanuts to workers, effectively institutionalising casual labour under a different name.“What these categories of employers in the industry are doing is outsourcing workers to contractors who offer peanuts. This is a deliberate extension of casual labour practices carried out in the industry without consent to labour regulations,” he said Abass reiterated that while the shipping sector and terminal operators have consistently engaged in what he described as cruel, vicious, and callous labour practices.
“This, of course, negates labour laws and regulations; these captains of industry have continued to justify their wicked acts by increasingly embracing dehumanisation and deliberately reducing the presence of the union in the maritime industry,” he stated.
He warned that the maritime industry is currently witnessing a dangerous level of industrial manipulation, noting that the union would no longer tolerate these unethical strategies designed to exploit the workforce