Report of the Royal Commission on Labour in India

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 1850495947

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-233603

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Report of the Royal Commission on Labour in India

Place of publication:: London

Publisher:: His Majesty's Stationery Off.

Year of publication:: 1931

Scope:: xviii, 580 S.; graph. Darst., Kt.

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

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Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Chapter XI. - Transport services and public works

Collection:: Economics Books

176 CHAPTER XI. those most recently discharged, and having the crew selected on an arbitrary system which might give a miscellaneous crew. The Committee also recommended that bribery, whether indirect or direct, to obtain employment as seamen should be regarded as a serious offence punishable with a considerable term of imprisonment. Action on Committee’s Report. The main object of the scheme was understood to be the eli- mination of the bribery which the Committee believed to exist on an extensive scale, and attention was concentrated on Calcutta where the abuses were said to be much more serious than in Bombay. From the start the scheme met with a large amount of opposition and criticism. The difficulties in the way of preparing a register were serious, and it was felt in many quarters that it would be impossible to restrict, in the manner contemplated by the Committee, the power of the serang over the selection of his own crew. After protracted discussion with the local Government and other interests, the Government of India ap- pointed in 1924 an officer of the Mercantile Marine as Shipping Master to re-organise the Shipping Office at Calcutta, and instructed him to examine the question of the establishment of a recruitment bureau. They considered that it would beinadvisable to proceed further with the recommendations of the Committee until the Shipping Masters had gained some experience of the system of recruitment and had made some progress with the registration of seamen. At a later date an assistant to the Shipping Master was appointed at Bombay to deal with the ques- tion of recruitment. Orders of Government. In 1929 the Government of India issued their orders on the recommendations of the Seamen’s Recruitment Committee. Under these orders, which were framed after consultation with the shipping companies, the leading ratings (i.e., serangs and butlers) are recruited either direct by the shipowners or through the Shipping Office. A broker must not be employed in any capacity in the selection of these men, and the companies undertake that preference will, as far as possible, be given to men who have been longest out of employment . The Shipping Master has no power to interfere in the selection, but we are informed that, as far as possible, the shipping companies endeavour to honour this undertaking. Recruitment is made through the Shipping Office where shipowners or their agents are unable to make the arrange- ments necessary for the registration of their men. The Shipping Offices maintain employment registers of serangs and butlers ; the shipowners, their agents or the ship’s officers select their men at an open muster. Here, too, there is no compulsion, but it is stated that in practice an endeavour is made to give preference to those longest out of employment. In the recruitment of lower ratings, there is no interference or control. The general practice is for the serang or butler to produce candidates in excess of the number required and for the Marine Superintendent or the ship’s officers to select from the men thus produced.

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