KOCHI: A wage dispute between owners of purse seine boats involved in single-day pelagic fishing and a section of workers affiliated to the CITU has been disrupting operations at Thoppumpady fishing harbour for the past one month.
Purse Seine Boat Operators’ Association president Siby Punnoose alleged that the workers are demanding nokkukooli or gawking charges misusing the dominance of CITU which has more than 1,000 workers at the harbour. Supporting the boat owners, Kerala Swathantra Matsya Thozhilali Union president Jackson Pollayil said the workers’ demand is unjustified.
According to Siby, around 100 workers, who were initially engaged by the boat workers for mooring and cleaning of the boats and to load drinking water in the boats, are now demanding 2% of the auction amount, though they are not involved in any operations.
However, CITU leader K M Riyad said that the workers’ duty includes unloading fish from boats and that their wage has been reduced from 3% to 2% of the total catch following disputes.
The workers cannot accept any move to reduce their share further, he said.
“The only job of these workers is to help with the mooring of the boats and load water in the boats,” Siby said.
He said the catch brought by the boats are auctioned off immediately after reaching the harbour, with the workers engaged by the auctioneer unloading the fish.
“These workers are also affiliated to the CITU. Our boats go for fishing only on alternate days and the average catch per day will be around Rs 1 lakh. The operating cost of the boat — including fuel, ice, and ration — comes to around Rs 70,000 and the income is only Rs 30,000.
We have to provide 47% of the income to the workers and the owner gets only around Rs 15,000. The protesting workers are demanding 2% of the auctioned amount, which is not feasible. We are ready to give 2% of the income after deducting the operating cost, which they are not accepting,” Siby said.
Earlier, there was a dispute between workers and owners on August 12. Siby alleged that he was manhandled by the workers. Protesting the attack on Siby, the boat owners observed a one-day strike on August 13. Following the standoff, fishing operations were disrupted for a week.
A conciliation meeting held on August 17 decided to settle the issues amicably and the boat owners said the wages will be distributed after signing an agreement. However, the workers rejected the proposal to deduct Rs 60,000 from the auction amount and provide 2% of the remaining amount as wages.
On Monday, the workers blocked auctioning of fish from purse seine boats at Kochi harbour and 16 boats had to depend on other harbours to sell the catch. There are around 47 purse seine boats operating from Thopumpady harbour, with each boat having 25 to 32 workers involved in fishing operations. The boat owners stressed that unloading the fish is the duty of the boat workers.
“We have been receiving 2% of the auction amount as wages for the past 14 years and there is no other benefit, like medical aid or allowances. The fishing season extends only for three months and these workers are surviving on the income from other work for the rest of the year. The 2% wage is fixed and there is no revision of wages like in other sectors. We are only demanding the existing wages. The claim that we are not involved in unloading fish is wrong,” Riyad said.
