ONGC’s two top executives served with contempt notice by the Court for not paying just wages
Several vessel operators in the Indian offshore engage people illegally to serve on their vessels through unregistered agents. Recently, a contractor who had employed five persons to serve as catering staff on one of the vessels owned by the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and managed by the Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) were forcefully bundled out of the vessel and onto a boat while on the high seas. They were not paid their dues (which was far below the prescribed wage), nor allowed to take with them their belongings.
This according to the various seafarers’ Unions is likely to be the last such incident in the offshore sector after the Forward Seamen’s Union of India (FSUI) moved the court and had a contempt notice served on the Chairman and Managing Director of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) R. S. Sharma and the Director (Offshore) S. Vasudev. There are around eight Indian shipping companies operating their vessels in the offshore sector.
All catering staff serving on OSVs and MSVs is regarded as seamen and are to be paid the agreed seamen’s wages according to the ruling passed by Pratima Umbarji. Despite this ruling the ONGC went ahead and appointed Rashmi Hospitality Services for their ship m.v. Sagar Sandhani even though this catering contractor did not have the Recruitment and Placement License from the Director General of Shipping, Government of India as required for the purpose. It was this contractor who had employed the aforesaid five persons to serve on the vessel.
In the contempt petition, the Union cited the case of a catering manager, A. Fernandes, who was employed on the same vessel of ONGC – m.v. Sagar Sandani and who had gone missing on October 10th 2003. However, ONGC claimed that the person never existed. His widow has not yet been paid any compensation despite the Central Government’s intervention.
The shipping industry and the unions are waiting to see what move ONGC makes as their two executives will have to present themselves in court on 22nd March 2010.
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