Wage pact signed, unions call off strike

MUMBAI: With seafarers’ unions and local shipowners’ body, Indian National Shipowners’ Association (INSA) signing a memorandum of understanding after a marathon meeting held last Thursday, the impasse that existed over wage agreement for seafarers for almost six years seems to be settled amicably.

The prolonged issues of wage settlement with various categories of seagoing personnel were hanging fire since 2002, when the last pact was signed for between the unions and INSA.

Though the wage issue got complicated with the two of the main unions – National Union of Seafarers Union (NUSI) and Forward Seamen’s Union of India (FSUI) - locking horns over majority status, seafarers have been getting interim relief as per government stipulation.

The majority-minority tussle between the two rival unions, with each of one of them claiming majority status and wanting to be one upon the other in crucial matters like wage settlements, reached to the level of high court, which in April this year directed INSA to carry on the wage negotiations in consultation with NUSI.

However, things got stuck with the unions demanding, among other things, a wage of 30 per cent, which was unacceptable to the shipowners.

Things came to a boil when the unions representing over 25,000 seafarers onboard Indian ships unilaterally calling for a one-day token strike on August 29, protesting the lackadaisical way the owners were taking the negotiations. The unions were planning to go on an indefinite strike if there was no positive result coming out of the talks.

According to NUSI, their demands include year-wise increment, social benefits, retainer benefits and special benefits to trainee seamen. There was no proper agreement since the year 2000 for the ratings and petty officers serving on offshore, hometrade and foreign going ships.

At the last week’s meeting, it was decided that all ratings will get an amount of Rs 1400 per month and the petty officers will get an amount of Rs 1900 in cash. The provident fund and gratuity amount for the corresponding period will be in addition to this cash amount.

All the arrears is over and above the interim relief of Rs 1500 for ratings and Rs 2000 for petty officers per month which they were getting when there was no agreement for the past six years.

NUSI general secretary-cum-treasurer Abdulgani Y Serang said in a statement, “The strike has been deferred. A good amount of arrears has been achieved.... Now we look forward to a second phase of the agreement i.e. post 2006.”
According to SS Kulkarni, secretary general.

INSA, it is win-win situation for the seafarers and shipowners alike. “The one thing that is very clear is that we knew that we have been giving them interim relief all these intervening years. For the unions, they could also show that they have achieved something,” he said.

According to him, there could be cash payment in the range of Rs 50 to 1 lakh per seafarer and it could run into a few crores of rupees, looking at the number of seafarers and number of years concerned.

“Even though there were infighting between the unions, we are looking forward to them to come rise to the occasion when we are competing globally in a highly competitive environment, by providing for a globally competitive manning environment. With the fair amount of understanding that has reached, he hoped that it could provide a benchmark for future negotiations.