The Hindu Business Line : Seafarers wage negotiations — Court blocks INSA's move to hold secret ballot

WAGE negotiations for Indian seafarers may face a fresh bout of delay, with the Mumbai High Court blocking the action of the Indian National Shipowners Association (INSA) to establish the majority status of the two unions through secret ballot.

The court, which was responding to a notice of motion filed by one of the unions, the National Union of Seafarers of India (NUSI), has now asked the Regional Labour Commissioner (RLC) to take up the responsibility of determining which of the two unions had the majority and hence could participate in the wage negotiations with the shipowners.

The court has asked the RLC to have its first sitting not later than March 12 and wrap up the process of establishing the majority status within a period of three months, informed sources told Business Line.

The wage negotiations have been pending since July 2001, with the two unions, NUSI and the Forward Seamen Union of India (FSUI) being at loggerheads on the question of which of them has a majority.

In an effort to thrash out the issue, INSA had launched a move to hold a secret ballot to establish the majority status of the unions recently. But NUSI, which has been against the "procedure being employed by INSA" to finalise the majority issue, chose to file a notice of motion before the Mumbai High Court, seeking impugnation of INSA's action of holding a secret ballot.

In fact, INSA had launched a fresh initiative in November last year to resolve the tussle between the two unions, offering them two options — one option was for the two unions to form a federation having members from both the unions for participating in the wage negotiations and the other envisaged separate dialogues between the different categories of ratings, such as home trade and offshore divisions.

But, according to sources, even this came a cropper, as the two unions could not come to an understanding on the options offered by INSA. This prompted the INSA to take a decision to hold a secret ballot to establish the majority status, so that it could take up the pending wage negotiations forthwith.

The Indian shipping industry supports about 800 and 300 ratings in the home trade and offshore divisions respectively, while there are another about 1,400 petty officers working on board ships belonging to the members of INSA, including the State-owned Shipping Corporation of India.

According to sources, NUSI used to wield clout among the ratings some years ago, but the Kolkata-based FSUI has been making significant inroads, especially in the home trade and offshore divisions. FSUI's gathering strength is reflected by the way NUSI has been trying to stave off majority verification on the ground that it would be subjudice.

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