The Hindu Business Line : P&O Ports gets stay against CCT workers' strike plans

P&O Ports has secured an interim injunction from the Madras High Court restraining the 350-strong workforce at its Chennai Container Terminal (CCT) from resorting to a strike demanding an increase in wages and salaries.

The dispute between P&O Ports and the workers' association at CCT, over negotiations for the first long-term (three years) wage settlement between the two after the terminal was privatised, is currently pending before the Regional Labour Commissioner (RLC).

On April 12, the CCT Employees' Association served an official notice on the CCT management to go on strike from April 26.

A top official with P&O Ports told Business Line that the management was doing its best to avert a confrontation with the employees. "We have offered the workers at our terminal a hike that is more than the average hike given by companies in and around Chennai for similar kind of skills," the official disclosed.

P&O Ports has offered a wage hike of Rs 1,500 per month to checkers as well as RTG crane operators and an increase of Rs 1,800 per month to quay crane operators. But the employees' association says that the offer was "too little."

Informed sources said that the association was demanding a hike of Rs 9,500 per month for checkers, Rs 12,000 per month for quay crane operators and Rs 13,000 per month for RTG crane operators. "This is a huge hike which we are not in a position to concede," the official explained.

The CCT employees' association comprises checkers, RTG crane, quay crane and reach stacker operators, reefer technicians and maintenance staff. Out of this, three key categories — checkers, RTG crane and quay crane operators — are currently paid salaries of Rs 5,500, Rs 7,000 and Rs 13,000 per month, respectively.

The RLC had held four rounds of meetings between the two warring groups since February this year without any success.

A meeting held on April 16 under the aegis of the Assistant Labour Commissioner (ALC) threw a counter proposal, which will be discussed further on May 11. The employees had deferred their agitation till this date.

According to informed sources, the workers' association is in the midst of collecting Rs 100 from each employee to mobilise funds for hiring a lawyer and fight their case in the court, including getting the interim injunction vacated.

The P&O Ports official said that the workers' decision to serve a notice and go on strike was "illegal" since conciliation proceedings were going on before the RLC and the ALC. "Under the Industrial Disputes Act, it is illegal," the official remarked.

When there are differences over wage hikes, the management and the employees' association should first try and settle it through the RLC. If this channel of settlement fails, the matter goes to the Industrial Tribunal for a resolution. In case, the Industrial Tribunal also fails to broker a settlement between the two sides, the matter will go to the court.

"Container handling is an essential service under the ID Act. When the dispute is under conciliation before the RLC, Industrial Tribunal or court, the employees cannot go on strike," the official said. Soon after taking over the container terminal from the Chennai Port Trust as per the government's privatisation programme, P&O Ports had fixed its own salary scale for those who joined its rolls from Chennai Port (about 80 of them) as well as new recruits on the basis of a study conducted by a consultant on the salary structure of workers in and around Chennai with similar skills.

Over the past few months, the private operator has been negotiating with the labour deployed at its container terminal for the first long-term wage settlement since it started operations.

Our Chennai Bureau adds: According to union representatives, the union representing CCTL workers has demanded a more than doubling of the salary for RTG (rubber-tyred gantry cranes) operators to Rs 15,000. It has also sought an increase in salary for checkers to Rs 10,000 from Rs 5,500 and for quay crane operators to Rs 23,800 from Rs 12,000.

The union has filed a petition in Madras High Court to vacate the stay order, the source said.

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