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Our Bureau

Kolkata, Oct. 7 The bilateral wage negotiation meeting held here recently between the wage negotiating committee of the major ports and the representatives of five federations controlling about 66,000 port and dock workers remained inconclusive over the periodicity issue, i.e. the period during which the new wage agreement will remain valid.

The last agreement, which expired on December 31, 2006, was valid for 10 years. The new agreement, to be effective retrospectively from January 1, 2007, should be in force for five years, insisted the trade union representatives at the meeting. But the Chairmen of the major ports, who participated in the meeting, could not take a decision on this. This was presumably because the periodicity issue could be decided only by the Shipping Ministry, more specifically the Shipping Minister himself. The Chairmen of Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, JNPT, New Mangalore, Kandla and Tuticorin and Deputy Chairman of Visakhapatnam port ,the Managing director of Indian Ports Association and 12 representatives of five federations of port and dock workers were present at the two-day meeting.

Meanwhile, the federation leaders have urged the Shipping Minister to firm up its view on periodicity and other issues at the earliest, so that the agreement could be signed before Diwali.

The unions have demanded a minimum pay of Rs 13,000 a worker at the lowest level. Right now the minimum pay is Rs 3,700. “There is no reason why the country’s major ports should not be able to pay what we’ve asked for,” Mr P.M. Mohammed Haneef, a trade union leader, told Business Line.

“The country’s port sector is now experiencing a virtual boom, with productivity and profitability having increased significantly.” As he pointed out, in 2006-07 alone, the country’s major ports posted a profit of over Rs 2,200 crore. Also the productivity jumped by 11 per cent in most other state-owned organisations.

Mr Mohammed Haneef regretted that while the productivity and the profits of the port sector were rising, the size of the workforce was steadily getting reduced – from 96,000 in 1997 to 66,000 in 2007.

More Stories on : Trade & Labour Unions | Shipping/Ports

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