Shipping operations at Nhava Sheva port near Mumbai have been badly hit due to wage disagreements between workers and the management at Nhava Sheva International Container Terminal (NSICT), one of three independent ports in the area.
This comes at a time when the government is trying to push exports to address the problem of an expanding current account deficit. NSICT is an associate company of DP World of Dubai and has Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) as a partner.
On October 15, the port’s labour union alleged that NSICT had declared a lockout which was illegal. The genesis of the trouble is the wage agreement between NSICT and the labour union. Patil said that in July 2011, the two sides signed an agreement under which NSICT agreed to a wage hike but later retracted on the same.