Dock union says staff morale low despite record-breaking results

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The Dock Workers' Union has raised concerns about low staff morale, which it says hurts their output.

This comes despite record-breaking performance by the Kenya Ports Authority for the month of February. 

On Thursday, KPA acting managing director Rashid Salim said the Mombasa port is experiencing peak moments, recording full container berth occupancy and minimum vessel delays.

The authority has projected this month's performance to surpass what it has reported over a similar period in the past two years.

“We are projecting to handle over 115,000 TEUs against 108,000 TEUs handled in 2020,” Salim said.

However, DWU general secretary Simon Sang on Saturday said there would have been an even better output had staff been adequately motivated.

Sang noted that shipping company CMA CGM Kenya Ltd’s threat to implement the Emergency Port Congestion Surcharge on worldwide cargo bound to and from Kenya until further notice means performance is not as expected.

The shipping company, in a letter on February 19, said all cargo, including dry, reefer, out of gauge and break bulk quantum, from worldwide origins, except China, to Mombasa, would be surcharged PCS USD150 (about Sh16,350) per 20-foot container and USD300 (about Sh32,700) per 40-foot container.

For cargo out of the Mombasa port, the PCS would be USD50 (about Sh5,450) per 20-foot container and USD100 (about Sh10,900) per 40-foot container.

The effective date of the PCS was February 22, according to the CMA CGM letter.

Sang said the union has no dispute with the performance of February but is concerned about the general staff morale.

“We have dispute with the morale of staff which is down because of the mishandled overtime issue. Shipping lines are complaining,” he said on the phone.

In a letter to National Treasury CS Ukur Yatani and his Transport counterpart James Macharia on February 25, Sang said the surcharge threats by shipping lines are real and should be taken seriously.

“The anticipated surcharge is caused by ships waiting for long in the stream due to the low performance in the Port of Mombasa,” Sang wrote.

On the contrary, on Thursday, Salim issued an improved performance report, saying KPA is currently handling over a million tonnes of non-containerised cargo against 800,000 tonnes handled in 2020, representing a 20 per cent increase.

He said for the last one week, the port had an average population of 17,000 TEUs against its holding capacity of 41,000 TEUs.

The enhanced efficiency has seen cargo dwell time reduce from an average of 5.6 days in December 2020 to 4.6 days in January 2021.

“As at February 24, we had only one container vessel that had arrived the previous day waiting to berth. She was scheduled to dock at berth No.16 later in the evening. This timing was within the 24 hours target stipulated in KPA’s Customer Service Charter,” he said.

But Sang insisted staff morale is low and blamed it on mishandled overtime policy and its implementation.

“When staff morale is down, performance is low. If the Staff morale was not low, there would be no issues being raised by shipping lines,” he said.

“There is a big rift currently between the human resource department and the operations department on one hand, and the workers and union on the other.”

He said this is the first time performance is low because of low staff morale. He asked the two CSs to intervene, saying the KPA should be taken as an engine of economic performance and growth and not merely a profit-making entity.

“Management should be informed not to over-control expenditure on overtime at the expense of the main objective and role of the port, the driver of the economy,” Sang said.

He said currently, the KPA management is struggling to save Sh2 billion per annum through overtime control in total disregard for the effect of the same on performance, and by extension, the economy.