More than 50,000 ratings/petty officers serving on board Indian flag ships will benefit from the revised wage agreement signed on Monday.
The National Maritime Board (India) wage agreement signed by the National Union of Seafarers of India (NUSI) covers seafarers working on harbour tugs for the first time, a NUSI statement said.
The new wage pact, valid till December 31, 2023, will merge some of the allowances to reduce malpractices and simplify the tracking of actual entitlements for the seafarers.
The new wage pact grants a 40% increase in wages for foreign-going ratings and 30% increase in wages for foreign-going petty officers; more than 20% increase in wages for home trade ratings and petty officers; and more than 10% and 7% increase in basic wages of offshore ratings and petty officers, respectively.
Seafarers working exclusively on harboru tugs will get a 10% increase in overall salary from January 1, 2021 till December 31, 2022. They will get a further cumulative increase of 5% for the period of January 1, 2023 till December 31 , 2023.
Apart from salaries, the death compensation amounts and the amount for death and disability compensation for seafarers on ships carrying radio-active material has also been increased significantly. The latest agreement also favours terms of re-employment, skill enhancement, reducing discrimination, increasing mental health awareness and creating robust grievance procedures for mariners, the statement added.