The president of United Cargo Workers Union, Alfred Marshall has on Wednesday January 13, 2021, said that they have called off a strike action which they had commenced after their demands had been partially met following negotiations with shipping companies at the Ministry of Labour in Freetown.
He added that during the engagement with shipping stakeholders, both sides agreed upon an increment which was proposed by the companies for unburdening of commodities like cement, rice and sugar from the sum of Le 1,500 to 1,800, feeding fee from Le, 2,500 to 5,000 and standardization from Le, 600.00 to Le 700.00.
Standardization is the act of checking and adjusting errors on bag of rice, cement, sugar by refilling to match with the rightfully imposed standards or regulations.
Marshall said that even though their demands on the conditions of service which they had proposed had not been fully agreed upon, the changes that have been made were reasonable.
The Minister of Labour, Alpha Timbo, said that there was an agreement between the laborers and the companies to provide them with rice for cooking after work, but the laborers claimed that the rice that was usually provided by the companies was not commensurate to the quantity of rice they had agreed upon.
He cited that before they came to that agreement then (to provide food for the laborers), the initial consensus among the laborers was for them to be paid Le 2,500 for feeding after working for a particular period. He added that when the uncertainty arose in the quantity of rice, they (laborers) then decided to shift to the initial agreement but they demanded as additional Le2,500, so they should be given Le5000 as feeding.
Timbo promised that the agreement would be reviewed after every two years to match up with trend in service conditions of laborers.
The Executive Director for Commodity Trading Centre (CTC), Basiru Jaward, expressed appreciation over the new agreement and promised that they are going to work in compliance with the new agreement.
By George M.O. Williams
15/01/2021. ISSUE NO:7981