SME Times News Bureau | 13 Jan, 2021
In a double benefit during the corona pandemic, the Centre has decided
to extend pension cover benefits to over 4,00,000 seafarers across all
categories, as per an agreement with the National Union of Seafarers of
Indian (NUSI), a top unionist said here on Wednesday.
"After
a meeting in New Delhi on Monday chaired by Director General of
Shipping Amitabh Kumar, the government has extended the benefits of
provident fund, gratuity and pension to all ranks of over four-lakh
merchant navy seafarers working on both Indian and foreign flag ships,"
NUSI General Secretary Abdulgani Y. Serang told IANS.
The latest
development came five weeks after the NUSI and another union FSUI
clinched an agreement with the Indian National Shipowners Association
(INSA) for a hefty 40 per cent wage hike with retrospective effect from
January 2020, last month.
Terming the latest development as
'historic', Serang said that though the PF for seafarers exists in the
statute for Indian flag ships, the gratuity and pension was still a
'bilateral arrangement' between NUSI and the shipping companies as per
the Collective Bargaining Agreement.
"For nearly two decades we
have been fighting for these three benefits to be part of the statute
and applicable to all ranks of seafarers -- officers, petty officers,
ratings and other categories -- serving on Indian and foreign flag
ships," Serang said.
Now, with the efforts of Shipping Minister
Mansukh Mandaviya and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the long pending
demand has been accepted which will go a long way in caring for the
seafarers and their families after they retire, the NUSI chief added.
The
NUSI spokesperson said that way back in 1963, the NUSI had led an
agitation outside Parliament in New Delhi demanding inclusion of all
seafarers in the Employees Provident Fund Act, 1952 which culminated in
the exclusive Seamen's Provident Fund Act, 1966 for the merchant navy
personnel.
However, they were still deprived of the pension,
gratuity and even PF for all categories serving under Indian or foreign
flags which has now been given by the government, explained the
spokesperson.