The Water Transport Workers Federation of India, one of the five major federations representing port and dock workers, has decided to observe National Protest Day on July 28 against the Shipping Ministry's move to corporatise major ports in the country, starting with the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT).

The two-day working committee meeting of the federation held at Kolkata also decided to organise the workforce of the port and dock industry against the Government move in consultation with other federations shortly.

Wage negotiations

The meeting also passed a resolution for early convening of bipartite wage-negotiating committee as the current wage-settlement will expire on December 31, 2011, and new pay structures for the port employees have to be evolved with effect from January 1, 2012.

Mr T. Narendra Rao, General Secretary of the Federation, said the working-committee meeting has also passed a resolution to bring private and non-major ports under the purview of the Tariff Authority of Major Ports, as major ports are competing with private ports.

Captive user policy

He has asked the Ministry to withdraw the Captive User Policy 2011, which would pave the way for captive users of ports to deploy more private employees in the port sector and reduce jobs for current employees.

He also urged the Ministry to concentrate on dredging of ports channels for augmenting the size of vessels, as competition grows between major ports and private and non-major ports, especially in ports such as Haldia, Kolkata, Kochi and JNPT.

This is the need of the hour, he said.

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