A section of houseboat owners has decided to go on an indefinite strike from May 21, protesting against the wage agreement signed by another section of owners with workers. All Kerala House Boat Owners Association president Josekutty Joseph said the owners spread across five unions will suspend services from Monday demanding a new wage agreement in the section, he said.
The unions representing the houseboat employees and owners are at loggerheads for sometimes over revising the pay structure. The workers unions had initially demanded a basic salary of Rs 15,000 and daily allowance of Rs 374. After several rounds of talks and threatening to go on an indefinite strike from May 10, the workers' unions on May 9 reached an agreement with a section of the houseboat owners on pay hike. As per the agreement reached, an employee is entitled to get a monthly salary of Rs 12,000, an increase of Rs 1,600 from the present salary of Rs 10,400. The daily allowance was also increased to Rs 290 from Rs 250.
However, five owner outfits with around 600 boats are yet to accept the pay increase.
"The unions have reached an agreement with only one owner association, who do business in a corporate way. We are small-scale players and cannot pay the increased salary. As such, we are left with no choice but to stop boat operations. We will suspend services from Monday," said K Vijayan, secretary, All Kerala Houseboats Owners Associations.
P K Sajeev Kumar, general secretary, Kerala Houseboat and Resort Workers Union (CITU), said employees are not on a strike path. "We have already reached an agreement on pay hike and the decision is applicable to all boat owners," he said.