The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) has announced that it will focus its campaign against Philippine-based container terminal operator, International Container Terminal Services Incorporated (ICTSI), on African ports.
This as an ITF report released Monday found that severe labour violations could be found throughout ICTSI’s global network - and the container terminal operator has identified Africa as a target region for expansion.
“ICTSI is currently lobbying the government of Cameroon to join a local consortium operating the multi-purpose terminal in Kribi,” said ITF president Paddy Crumlin. “The ITF is concerned that issues seen elsewhere in ICTSI’s global network will extend to Cameroon if their bid is successful.”
According to the ITF’s report, patterns emerged that ICTSI was paying poverty wages, upholding poor safety standards and illegally out-sourcing jobs to labour-hire companies.
“The company’s lack of appropriate governance structures and failure to engage with unions are not only a risk to workers – they are also a risk to the reputation of the regions and countries in which they operate,” added Crumlin.
ICTSI operates 29 container terminals globally.
