The Hindu Business Line : Port workers want restoration of retirement age to 60

Discrimination
The IAS and other Central services officers who head several major ports and also Shipping Ministry officials will retire at the age of 60.
But due to exceptions, the port officers, i.e. those who built their careers in ports and subsequently were promoted to the ranks of chairman and deputy chairman in a port, will retire at 58.

Kolkata May 2 More than 50,000 employees and officers in the country's major ports and dock labour boards want an early end to the discrimination they have been subjected to. They want restoration of their retirement age at 60 at the earliest. Right now it is 58. But the retirement age of those employed in major ports and dock labour boards was raised to 60 from 58 with effect from May 28, 1998.

Subsequently, from January 1, 2001, it was again brought down to 58. The sources close to the unions controlling employees and officers in major ports and dock labour boards draw attention to several anomalies in this regard. Thus the IAS and other Central services officers who head several major ports will retire at the age of 60. Precisely for the same reason, the officials in the Shipping Ministry too will retire at 60. The retirement age in several public sector undertakings under the Shipping Ministry too is 60.

However, the exceptions have been made in respect of those in the port service. As a result, the port officers, i.e., those who built their careers in ports and subsequently were promoted to the ranks of chairman and deputy chairman in a port, too will retire at 58. A clear case of discrimination, it is felt. It is not that the Government is unaware of it. The issue has been pending with the Chief Labour Commissioner since end-2005. In 2006, the Shipping Ministry constituted a committee to examine the issue. The committee, in its report, has recommended the raising of the retirement age to 60, it is learnt. Several MPs too have drawn the attention of the Union Shipping Minister urging him to raise the retirement age in the port sector.

The Union Shipping Minister, in a letter to a Member of Parliament early this year, too, indicated that the matter was being examined by the Government. But nothing has happened as yet.

The port sector, it is strongly felt, is being discriminated against at a time when the Union Government has raised the retirement age in educational institutes from 60 to 65 and fixed the retirement age of almost all the Central Government employees at 60.

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