Redundancy payments: MWUN records legal victory against INTELS over contract workers

UFOMBA UZUEGBU

Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria, MWUN, has emerged victorious in its legal battle against INTELS, following the disparity in payment of redundancy extra-gratuity to the permanent, as well as, contract workers.

INTELS, a principal employer of AMS Contract Staff, had earlier paid such gratuity to its 34 permanent staff, only to decline negotiations with MWUN to effect the same payment to its 599 Contract Staff, affected by the same redundancy exercise.

In a statement signed by the Head of Media, MWUN, Comrade John Kennedy Ikemefuna, the Union noted that the victory won under the astute leadership of Prince Adewale Adeyanju, is a victory for the labour movement, as well as the workers.

The statement read in part, “In view of the foregoing, the court has ordered in its ruling against INTELS and AMS to negotiate with the Union and pay the said extra-gratuity to all the 599 affected workers, as was done to its permanent staff”.

Besides, 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 negotiations, hence, the trade dispute declared by the Union, due to INTELS’ refusal to negotiate with the Union, thus leading to the court action.

Sequel to the clear judgement against INTELS, the company should however do the needful by paying extra gratuity to affected contract workers, the stastatement.