At a meeting with the trade unions, the Cochin Port Trust agreed to hike the portion of lorry rent given to the drivers and cleaners. From eight per cent and 4 per cent, the proportion has been increased to 10.5 per cent and 5.25 per cent respectively.
Following this, the trailer crew at the port ended their strike on the 11th day recently. The meeting was attended by trailer owners, trade union representatives, senior officials of Cochin Port Trust and it was convened by Kerala Labour and Port Minister.
The meeting also finalised a 20 per cent hike in other benefits. The term of the agreement will be for two years and it will come into effect from March 1.
The new rates will remain unchanged for the next 10 years. The trailer owners pointed out that each crew will get an additional hike of 31.25 per cent in their “bata” with the new rates comes into effect.
Day-to-day operations at ICTT Vallarpadam was severely affected by the strike, which began on February 4 and this hit the movement of cargo to and from the terminal. This has resulted in piling up of containers, which went up to nearly 7,200 teus.
In order to evacuate cargo held up in the terminal, DP World is said to be taking steps. The company is now permitting acceptance of containers up to the sailing of the vessel instead of six hour prior cut off to accommodate the trade to get their pending shipments cleared.
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