By Joseph Tumbey; josephtumbey@gmail.com; (+231)777941209

The Management of the APM Terminals Liberia Ltd and the Dock Workers’ Union of Liberia have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) bringing to close a long-standing labor dispute between the employees and management of the APM Terminals Liberia.

Tthe ceremony which took place on Monday September 27, 2021 at the Ministry of Labor in Monrovia was graced by the Managing Director, Mr. Jonathan Graham of the APM Terminals Liberia, Dock Workers Union (DOWUL) and officials of the Ministry led by Minister Charles H. Gibson.

During  the tripartite agreement; Mr. Jonathan Graham  signed on behalf of the APM  Management, while Ms. Jackie Doe,  the President of DOWUL signed for the Workers ,  and the Assistant Labor Minister for Trade Union and Social Dialogue, Gonsan-Zeo P. Mensah, witnessed on behalf of the Ministry.

Speaking to reporters, the Labor Minister said the occasion is to highlight the role of the Ministry of Labor in resolving labor disputes in the country. And added that, his Ministry respect workers and protect their rights, but also have the duty to ensure that the investor investment is not in jeopardy. “We will work to ensure a balance in regulating relationship between employers and employees”. He emphasized.

Gibson maintains in the process of ensuring a balance, the Ministry sometimes gets misinterpreted both by the workers and management. He said his Ministry will focus on the rules and encourage social dialogue to create smooth working environment across the country.

He assured the parties that the Ministry of Labor will always be available and look forward to a smooth implementation of all that have been agreed to in the MOU by the Management and the workers.

Minister Gibson described the new Managing Director of the APM Terminals Liberia, Mr. Jonathan Graham as a visionary who sees things differently. “Since his arrival, he has been engaging the Ministry and Management team positively and those other issues that have not been passed on by the court are being addressed in the MOU” Minister Gibson asserted.

He expressed happiness that all the six counts derived by the Ministry’s ruling are all being addressed in the MOU, and said it also provides that pending its signing and implementation, the Lawyers of APM Terminals Liberia will formerly withdraw their appeal against the Ministry’s ruling from the Labor Court.

He hailed the MOU and said, the Ministry will take it as a model for other entities to emulate in that outside of the Ministry of Labor, parties can sit and negotiate an agreement that resolved almost all of the issues noting that there will be issues, but the MOU also provides the mechanism on how other issues that may come about in the future can be addressed.

In concluding, the Labor Minister informed the Management of the APM Terminals Liberia that, there are other matters that do not border on labor, but are concerns of some in the Legislature and the Executive as it relates to the implementation of the current agreement between the Company and Government of Liberia.

Meanwhile, the Labor Minister confirms that he is confident that with parties’ style of leadership, their concerns will be addressed fairly and amicably.

At the same time, the Managing Director of APM Terminals Liberia, Mr. Jonathan Graham thanked the Minister and the Ministry for the support and guidance to all the parties during the negotiation.

He added that, it was a professional move by the DOWUL Leadership and his team for the manner and form through which they derived at a peaceful signing of the MOU, and promised to ensure the adherence to the full implementation of the MOU.

Also speaking during the ceremony, DOWUL President Ms. Jackie Doe praised the leadership of the Ministry of Labor under the watch of Cllr. Charles H. Gibson for the level of intervention in bringing the long running dispute between the Management and Workers of APM Terminals Liberia to an amicable end in the interest of industrial peace and harmony.

She described the relationship between the two as social partners who are working to move the country forward and not enemies

It can be recorded that, the workers of APM Terminals went on a labor strike in 2018 and the Ministry of Labor intervened and found the Company liable for breaching its own policy that provided Annual Leave Allowance for employees, unpaid overtime, amongst others.

By then, the Ministry of Labor mandated the APM Terminals to settle the unpaid Annual Leave Allowance and overtime, a mandate which was implemented and was of the understanding of APM Terminals that the Matter was resolved.

Two years later, the employees under the leadership of the DOWUL, went on another labor strike in September 2020 citing grievances of pending unpaid annual leave allowance from 2018 strike resolution including other issues such as inadequate medical insurance, incomplete food allowance, amongst others as reasons for their strike action.

The MOL determined that it was evident that the strike action was inchoate with regards to its legality in that if fulfilled the legal requirement in part and failed in part and also held the APM Terminals liable on six counts contained in the finding from the MOL.

The MOL also mandated AMP Terminals to recall employees who were suspended as a result of the September 2020 strike action to return to work, a mandate which was rejected by AMP Terminals and submitted to the National Labor Court for judicial review.

Whilst the judicial review was pending, the Court ordered AMPT to honor the MOL’s directive to recall the suspended employees and have them return to work and pay their full salaries and benefits incurred during the period under suspension, a mandate APMT implemented unconditionally.

The Management of APMT however, reportedly honored the court’s mandate in respect of the rule of law and recalled the suspended employees to return to work.

Following several engagements of the stakeholders by  both DOWUL (representing the employees) and the Management of APMT desirous of resolving their disputes agreed to use social dialogue and negotiations to resolve pending and any disputes and in the case that they cannot reach an agreement

Both parties  however  agreed to seek the MOL intervention for peaceful disputes resolution in alignment with the Liberian laws and the Decent Work Act of 2015.