The Hindu Business Line : Seafarers to rejoice on wage revision

As per the decision, each seafarer working on Indian foreign going, offshore and home trade ships would receive Rs 40,000 by way of arrears effective from April 1, 2006 to March 31, 2008 which is an increase of 23.5 per cent, Mr Abdulgani Y. Serang, General Secretary and Treasurer of National Union of Seafarers of India ( NSUI) told Business Line.

Further, the High Court has also directed for an overall increase of 15 per cent effective from April 1, 2008 to March 31, 2010.

Internal differences

The issues, supposed to be settled between the Indian National Shipowners Association (INSA), seafarers union NUSI and Forward Seamen’s Union of India (FSUI), were pending for a long time due to “internal differences between the two seafarer unions,” said a senior member of INSA.

It was then that the matter was taken to Court last year and finally the National Maritime Board agreement was signed on January 17, 2008.

The NMB agreement is a bipartisan agreement between the shipowners and seafarers unions to negotiate terms and conditions for work and wages of the seafarers.

Further increases

In addition to the agreement signed on January 17, the seafarers have also been given a further increase in on-board messing and the ‘death and disability’ amount.

“Further to Rs 13,50,000 negotiated, the seafarers will be given Rs 1,25,000 more and the messing on-board will also go up to Rs 385 per day per seaman from Rs 235 agreed upon earlier,” said Mr Serang.

There has also been an increase in certain allowances like bhatta, tanker/chemical, carriage of radioactive materials and others.

A sub-committee with a time-frame of six months has also been formed to look into demands of roster built-up, all seafarers on contract, promotion policy, hatch-cleaning and other such issues.As per the court’s verdict, the settlement reached for ratings and petty officers has to be implemented within seven days.

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