Haldia labourers’ livelihoods at stake after retrenchment

25 September 2012

biswabrata goswami
HALDIA, 25 SEPT: Amidst the ongoing doldrums over the handling of dry bulk cargos at Haldia Dock Complex (HDC), a fresh retrenchment of 275 workers by a private operator has triggered a new political dispute, putting the livelihoods of hundreds of labourers at stake.
Haldia Bulk Terminals (HBT) Pvt Ltd, a special-purpose vehicle of the LDA-ABG consortium, which operates Berths 2 and 8 at HDC, has announced its decision to retrench 275 workers, citing reasons of an oversized payroll of 650 and loss in operations. In a mailed communication, HBT CEO Gurpreet Malhi had informed yesterday: “HBT had decided to right-size its workforce with the retrenchment of 275 personnel w.e.f 24 September 2012. It may consider hiring or outsourcing suitable additional workforce in the future if the volumes increase. However it will look at hiring employee profiles which are not restrictive to only single function so that the workforce is agile to handle operations with optimal productivity.”
A few days ago, another private operator, Replay ~ which also deals with cargo handling at other berths of HDC ~ had threatened to retrench around 300 workers, prompting the Indian National Trinamul Trade Union Congress (INTTUC) leaders to launch an agitation against the port management.
Mr Subhendu Adhikari, Trinamul Congress MP had organised a rally in front of the HDC gate, threatening to paralyse the port activities if the port continued allocating the cargo-ships at Berths 2 and 8, which are dealt by HBT. Replay argued that if the volume of cargo handling is not increased at their Berths, they would be forced to retrench workers.
“But, this time when the HBT has decided to retrench 275 workers, Mr Adhikari is mysteriously silent over this decision despite the fact that the workers belong to INTTUC. If he protests the retrenchment, he will have to support the bilateral agreement between HBT and KoPT under the High Court's direction,” a Citu leader said.
According to an HBT official, the firm was forced to hire more than 220 people in 2010 under pressure from CPI-M strongman Lakshman Seth and Citu. “Soon after, INTTUC came up with a demand that unless we hire the same amount of people, HBT will not be allowed to start operations,” the official said. HBT had a total workforce of 1000, out of which 650 are on its payroll and another 350 are under a sub-contractor.