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Debaprosad Lahiri

THE issue of merger the Calcutta Dock Labour Board (CDLB) and the Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT) re-surfaced during the visit of a Parliamentary Committee to Kolkata recently. A discussion was held between the members of the Committee and the port authorities. The KoPT-CDLB merger issue was kept in abeyance for a couple of years due to non-settlement of terms.

At the CDLB, the discussion on the merger issue started in 1997-98, as advised by the Ministry of Shipping and continued till 2002 at various levels. The unions controlling the dock workers demanded protection of the service conditions of dockers and staff, and the pension.

The merger move was initiated in the wake of a legislation enacted following the Dock Workers (Regulation of Employment) (Inapplicability to Major Ports) Bill, 1995. The Act became a law, as notified on August 19, 1997. The dockers employed by the Dock Labour Board are generally engaged in loading and unloading of cargo including containers (loaded and empty) on and from vessel. They are not deployed for any shore-related jobs, done by shore workers, covered under the Major Port Trust Act, 1963.

Hence, the objects of the 1997 Act relating to the merger of the CDLB and the KoPT included integration of shore and dock labour and better coordination among different cargo handling process.

Section 3 of the Act provides that an agreement would be signed between the Dock Labour Board of any major port, its workers and the management of the respective major port in accordance with the provision of ID Act, 1947.

After Independence, seven Dock Labour Boards in Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Kochi, Visakhapatnam, Murmagao and Kandla were constituted as seven major ports and administratively controlled by the Ministry of Shipping. Before the enactment of the 1997 Act the mergers of the Bombay Port Trust and the Cochin Port Trust respectively took place by agreement made under the ID Act.

The mergers of the Visakhapatnam Dock Labour Board and the Kandla Dock Labour Board are still at negotiation stage.

The merger of the CDLB with the KoPT could not materialise as the latter had neither shown any interest nor come out with a response despite the call from the CDLB Chairman, who is also the Chairman of the KoPT.

The main reason, it is said, is the large uncovered past liabilities on account, among others, of pension of Rs 70 crore as also the current pension burden of Rs 24 crore annually for 7000 pensioners.

Now it is a matter of guess whether the CDLB will merge with the KoPT by an agreement, as provided under Section 3 of the Act or face a natural end.

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