Posted by By Fatou Jaiteh
The Gambia Ports Authority (GPA) yesterday commenced a two-day workshop on the validation of the roadmap for the establishment of a subsidiary labour company at the Banjul port. The GPA is in collaboration with the Gambia Dock and Maritime Union. Benom Consult, a Ghana-based consultancy company, is said to be providing consultancy services for the initiative. The event is being held at the Sir Dawda Kairaba Conference Centre in Bijilo.
The company on the verge of establishment seeks to provide labour to meet the demands of customers, while ensuring that revenue or profits are ploughed back into the welfare of workers.
Until now dock workers have been deemed an integral part of the GPA and have been paid by the Ports Authority Management instead of the shipping agents. However the dock workers’ union have in 2001 and 2007 expressed a desire to operate independently of the GPA.
Among the aims of the proposed company is to cater for the wellbeing of dock workers and to ensure that all outstanding payments due to them, such as, back pay, social security and pensions, are payed in a timely manner.
Earlier in July this year, the management and personnel of GPA, dock workers and officials of the Maritime Labour Union visited the Tema port to study how the Ghana Dock labour Company functions. The tour centred on the actualization of the same project in The Gambia.
To that end the consultant that helped in operating the system in Ghana has been contracted to help replicate the system in The Gambia.
The president of the Gambia Dock Workers Union, Mr. Lang Balla Saho, lamented the fact that dock workers have over the years been subjected to avoidable poor working conditions, adding that the situation was so bad that even if a dock worker happens to fall sick, he or she is not covered by any medical insurance. He further deplored the sacking of more than 200 dock workers by the GPA over the years, noting that as most of these people did not have alternative employment due to lack of formal education, the resultant stress proved too much for some of them and they ended up destitute till death.
Mr Saho nonetheless expressed optimism that the initiative would redress the problem of dock workers, and assured the GPA of the commitment of the union’s full cooperation.
The Consultant, Mr. Benjamin Osufu Mensah, made it clear that the company that is about to be formed belongs to the dock workers and that the GPA could not in any way direct how they should operate in their work. He also declared that by 01/01/2022 the company will be fully operational.
The GPA Managing Director, Babucarr Sarr assured the dock workers of the support of the ports authority in giving advice and any other assistance necessary for the success of the project.