Report of the Royal Commission on Labour in India

Bibliographic data

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

TRANSPORT SERVICES. 181 licensed brokers in the engagement of seamen have now been curtailed, and bheir employment as intermediaries is restricted almost entirely to the supply of men to fill vacancies occurring among the lower ratings imme- diately prior to the vessel's departure. But we do not think that an inter- mediary is necessary even to this limited extent. Desertions at this stage are not numerous ; any shipping companies who are unable to make their own arrangements for the supply of the necessary men, should be able to secure the assistance of the Shipping Master for this purpose. We recom- mend that the licenses granted under section 24 of the Indian Merchant Shipping Act be not renewed. Allotment of Wages. Indian seamen have hitherto failed to secure the benefit of the provisions of the Indian Merchant Shipping Act relating to the allotment of wages. Under this Act, a seaman may allot, by means of a stipulation in the articles of agreement, any portion of his wages not exceeding one- third to a relative or a member of his family. We were informed that this provision had been little used, and the Shipping Master at Calcutta stated that he had not yet issued a single allotment note in favour of Indian seamen. As far as we can gather, no effort has been made to encourage seamen to take advantage of a provision which was intended for their benefit. We recommend that, as far as possible, seamen should be in- {formed of the existence of this arrangement and encouraged by Shipping Masters to make more extensive use of it. Further, as the home of the Indian seaman is usually at some considerable distance from the port of recruitment, we recommend that the amount of the allotment should be remitted regularly by the Shipping Office by means of money orders to the name and address of the person named in the allotment note. We also recommend that the maximum limit of allotment should he raised to two- thirds of the wages of the seaman. Articles of Agreement, Signing on and Discharge. The representatives of a seamen’s union submitted in evidence a number of points in connection with the articles of agreement and the procedure for signing on and discharge. The union urged that the pro- vision of a column in the articles for g report on the quality of the sea- man’s work was prejudicial to him and that the agreement should pro- vide for unemployment indemnity in case of loss or foundering of the ship. These matters have now been dealt with in a Bj] to amend the Indian Merchant Shipping Act, which was recently passed by the Indian Legislature. A further demand was that a seaman should receive wages rom the date of signing on until the date of final payment of all his dues on discharge. The object is to secure that the seaman is not re- quired to remain in port unnecessarily when not in employment. Having regard to the prevailing indebtedness among seamen and the high cost of living 10 ports, we have every sympathy with this object. We re- ceived little evidence in regard to the delays which occurred between the signing on and actual engagement or between discharge and final pay- ment of wages, and recommend that the Government should make fur- ther enquiries into the matter and take such action as mav be found

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