Vallarpadam strike called off

KOCHI: The five-day-old container lorry drivers’ strike at Vallarpadam International Container Transshipment Terminal (ICTT) was called off on Tuesday following an agreement arrived at the talks convened by the Labour Commissioner with the Cochin Port Trust officials, container lorry owners and trade union leaders in the state capital.

As per the agreement, the wage of drivers of 40 ft containers will be increased from Rs 840 to Rs 1050 and that of 20 ft containers from Rs 648 to Rs 850.  The drivers of long–distance trucks will get a five per cent incentive.

Another major issue of contention of standardizing the container lorry rent was referred to NATPAC, which has been asked to prepare a draft report for the same in three months. Based on the recommendations in the report, discussions will be held again to fix the wages of the drivers.

Another major issue of giving parking lot to the container lorries was solved earlier. As per this the lorries will be allowed to park near the LNG terminal at Puthuvype. According to a CPT official, the lorries are not making full use of the already allotted parking lots at Willingdon Island and Bolghatty which were given by CPT and the fresh demand for a fresh plot has come despite this situation.

He said that the five day strike has caused enormous financial loss to stakeholders. “One container lorry can charge Rs 20,000 and 5000 lorries would have operated in this five days. So one can imagine the loss caused to all including those who called the strike,” he said