MANGALORE: Port and dock workers affiliated to various trade unions would be staging a demonstration in front of the administrative office of the New Mangalore Port Trust (NMPT) here on Tuesday. They urged the Union Government to fulfil various demands of port workers.

Addressing presspersons here on Monday, New Mangalore Port Staff Association, N. Ramachandra Gowda said that port employees affiliated to Karnataka Dock and General Workers Union and New Mangalore Port and Dock Workers Union will also participate in the demonstration from 1.30 p.m. to 2.30 p.m.

Mr. Gowda said that the unions opposed a verdict of the Kolkata-based National Industrial Tribunal in an industrial dispute between employers of major ports and their workmen. If the Union Government implemented this verdict the productivity at Indian ports would come down drastically and ruin the atmosphere at the ports.

The Government should not implement this verdict, he said.

The Government should merge 50 per cent of the dearness allowance with the basic pay of employees and provide productivity-linked bonus to them, he added.

He alleged that the Government was attempting to privatise certain services in ports.Mr. Gowda said that earlier if an employee died while in service a member of the deceased family was given employment in the port. The Government had stopped the provision and it should be continued.

There is a need to introduce a scientific basis for determining the crew strength needed to serve the ports, he added.

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