Unions representing 18,000 workers at the 12 major ports have decided to withdraw the strike planned from Wednesday after an agreement was reached with Bipartite Wage Negotiation Committee (BWNC) and the Indian Ports Association (IPA) on various issues. The strike call was called mainly against the inordinate delay in concluding the Bipartite Wage Negotiations and signing the settlement.
The strike was called off after an MoU was reached between Chairman of BWNC)and Managing Director of IPA and with six federations of Port & Dock Workers of Indian Major Ports on Tuesday in New Delhi on the strike notice served by the affiliates of the six federations at Indian Major Ports, said sources.
The affiliates of six federations at major ports had served a notice of indefinite strike Wednesday demanding settlement of revision of wage structure and other service conditions including pensionary benefits from January 1, 2022.
After a day long deliberations some of the major decisions that emerged at the meeting include the fitment benefit of 8.5 per cent on the aggregate amount of basic pay as on December 31, 2021 plus 30 per cent of VDA as on January 1, 2022 shall be given and the the periodicity of the settlement shall be for five years from January 1, 2022 to December 31, 2026.
It was also agreed that the pay scales effective from January 1, 2022 shall be formulated as per existing practice.
The suggestion of the management that the periodicity of the next wage revision from January 1, 2027 should coincide with the periodicity of officers’ pay revision to avoid future anomalies has been duly considered. The federations agreed that both management and federations will consider it at the time of next wage revision from January 1, 2027 to bring parity in the periodicity of settlement for officers and employees.
It was also agreed that a special allowance of ₹500 per month shall be given for the working employees during the operative period of settlement from January 1, 2022 up to December 31, 2026 or upto the date of superannuation of working employees whichever is earlier.
The management ensured that the BWNC proceedings shall be concluded by the settlement within 15 days.