Workers of major ports in the country will strike work on February 20 and 21 to protest the “anti-labour and anti-port policies of the government’’.
“The present policy of the government enforced under the pretext of port reforms is nothing but intended to handover the existing ports into the hands of multinational companies,” said S.R.Kulkarni, President, All India Port & Dock Workers’ Federation.
He also alleged that ports managed by private entrepreneurs do not follow labour and tariff regulations.
“Several statutory settlements reached between the federations and port managements at national level and with affiliates at local level are not honoured,” he said.
Major ports face a severe shortfall of workers with the gap in some major ports as high as 40 per cent. This was acknowledged even by a top official of the government recently.
There are 13 major ports in the country.