The Hindu : Front Page : Steps to make Kochi port trouble-free

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Sunday, Dec 02, 2007
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Steps to make Kochi port trouble-free

T. Ramavarman

P.K. Gurudasan has called a meeting of stakeholders on December 6.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Labour Department has launched an initiative to make the Kochi port “trouble-free” in the wake of growing labour-management disputes there.

Labour Minister P.K. Gurudasan has convened a meeting of trade unions, political parties, people’s representatives and officials of the Cochin Port Trust (CPT) and the Central Labour Department in Kochi on December 6 as part of the initiative. Officials of India Gateway Terminal Ltd. (IGTL), which runs the Rajiv Gandhi Container Terminal for the CPT, will attend the conference. Industries Minister Elamaram Karim and Fisheries Minister S. Sarma have also been invited.

“We are not going to discuss any specific labour dispute at the meeting. Our effort will be to evolve consensus among various stakeholders to ensure that the port will not plunge into a crisis in the name of labour problems,” Mr Gurudasan told The Hindu here on Saturday.

The Minister said that as per the Industrial Disputes Act, the State government could not directly intervene in the labour disputes in the CPT. This is because the port is a major port and only the Union Labour Department can intervene. “But the State government is concerned about the developments at the CPT and that is why we are taking the initiative. As per reports, the Dubai Ports World, which is the parent company of the IGTL, has even threatened to withdraw from the operations in Kochi if the labour conflicts recur,” Mr. Gurudasan said.

State Labour Commissioner K.S. Premachandra Kurup said he was not even permitted to attend a meeting held in Kochi on November 23 to resolve the issues which led to a recent labour unrest in the port. The unions had then objected to his participation in the meeting as it would be tantamount to the State government’s interference in a labour dispute in which only the Union government had the jurisdiction. He, however, said he had convened a meeting on November 23 in Kochi to work out a formula to ensure that the ongoing rail and road connectivity works to the proposed Vallarpadam container terminal project were not hit by labour disputes. The representatives of the CPT, IGTL, and the Dubai Ports World, had attended the meeting.

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