By Victor Ahiuma-Young

MARITIME Workers Union of Nigeria, MWUN, weekend stopped the planned shut-down of the nation’s ports after it said the management of Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, signed necessary papers to ensure payment of outstanding wages to dockworkers from today.

President of the dockworkers’ branch of MWUN, Mr Adewale Adeyanju, said the signing of the papers took place Thursday night after a marathon meeting by stakeholders and a letter from the Ministry of Transport to the management of NPA, urging it to ensure immediate payment of the wages to avert industrial unrest in the nation’s ports.

MWUN had threatened to  begin  indefinite industrial action by Friday after NPA allegedly refused to endorse the payment of the wages of the dockworkers, especially tally clerks and on-board security men in the last eight months.

According to  Adeyanju: “All the papers have been signed by the management of NPA and it is expected that the payment will begin from Monday (today). Because of that, we are suspending the planned strike, hoping that the backlog of wages will be paid before the end of the week to avoid unnecessary tension in the ports.”