Comments
As the strike called by affiliated unions of headload workers of Mattancherry continues over the refusal of Kerala Headload Workers Welfare Board to release festival advance during Ramzan, loading work in Kochi’s export units was disrupted for the seventh day.
Many exporters have fallen behind on export commitments resulting in loss of business and huge monetary loss.
At an emergency joint press meet organised by the All India Spices Exporters Forum and other trade associations including Cochin Chamber of Commerce and Indian Chamber of Commerce, the industry bodies urged the State government to intervene immediately to end the impasse.
The headload workers were receiving approximately ₹15,000 as festival advance from the Welfare Board. However, this year they have not paid the festival advance to over 100 workers on the plea that the average emoluments of these workers are low and their advance would be restricted to such amounts as shown on records.
The Welfare Board claims that many workers have developed illegal practice of demanding payment directly from the establishments where they work. This has resulted in such wages not being reflected in the accounts of the Board.
The export firms have been caught in the middle in the flash strike. Spices exporters are the worst hit.
This was a matter to be resolved between the Board and the workers and should not have been allowed to escalate to a point affecting the country’s exports, Rajeev Palicha, Chairman AISEF said.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.