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 XXV. - Labour and the constitution

Collection:: Economics Books

MINUTE BY MR K. AHMED, 491 that there may be a certain difference in the quality of the work of these two classes of seamen, but. this is largely accounted for by the difference in wages and general amenities offered to them. I therefore urge that speedy efforts should be made to bridge the difference between the two scales of wages, and that this should be done by gradual increases in the rates now pavable to Indian seamen. Special Questions Relating to Workers in Inland Navigation. In inland navigation there are about 40,000 men employed in Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, Assam, Burma and other places. There is a great deal of unemployment among them, and any number of men can be recruited at any time without any difficulty. They are recruited by the serangs and ** drivers ”, and there exists a great many abuses in the method of recruitment. The serangs and maistries ‘who recruit them not only give them bad food, but keep to themselves a part of their wages. They do not get a living wage the year round. They have absolutely no direct connection or relationship with the employers and they always remain dependent on the serangs who treat them as chattels. There are no fixed times of work, but generally they have to remain on board. In the ferry services the crews have to be on duty from 6 o'clock in the morning to 8-30 in the evening while the steamers are being plied from station to station. In addition they have to be on board the steamer an hour before 6 o'clock and similarly an hour longer after the steamers stop plying at 8-30 P.M. (vide also the evidence of Sir Charles Stuart- Williams, Chairman of the Calcutta Port Trust). I hope, under the eir- cumstances, that the Port Commissioners at the ports of India and Burma will take sufficient steps to ameliorate the conditions of this class of seamen and remove the grievances set forth above. As it was considered by the Chairman that the conditions of the crews of the military and marine launches in the Royal Indian Marine at Calcutta are beyond the scope of the enquiry, I recommend that the Government should investigate the conditions of life and work of the crews of these launches both at Calcutta and Bombay. It appears that they have been serving continuously for the last 25—30—35 years and yet they do not get any pension, gratuity, leave, uniforms, or other benefits corresponding to those granted to the Port Commissioners’ men and to those of the Bengal Government doing similar work. I do not agree with the observation made in Chapter XVI at pages 299—301 with regard to the applicability of the Workmen's Compensation Act for injury and loss of life to Indian seamen engaged on ships registered outside India, nor do I agree that the principle of In- ternational Law can debar claims for such damages in any court in India by the seamen’s relatives or dependants, since the seamen are recruited on Indian soil under the supervision of the shipping master appointed by the Government of India. I have recommended that seamen’s Article of Agreement in all cases should be signed on in the Employ- ment Bureaux at the shipping office and not on board the ship, and

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