New regulations for stevedores’ working conditions |06 July 2018

The Minister for Employment signed into effect on June 30 a new regulation concerning the working conditions for stevedores.

The Stevedores Condition of Employment Regulations 2018 follows stevedores' protest for better working conditions and benefit late last year.

Subsequently the Ministry for Employment, Immigration and Civil Status went into intense consultation with stevedore representatives from unions, the employers and other stakeholders to help draft this legislation.

It is to be stressed that there was previously no piece of legislation that took into account the welfare of stevedores.

Jules Baker, the principal secretary for employment, met members of the media on Wednesday to provide further understanding of the regulation.

He explained that stevedores are now entitled to payments of compensation following a length of service of seven years.

The compensation is expected to be worked out by calculating the stevedores’ average wages in a period of twelve months, multiplied by twelve months and further divided by a fixed number of hundred days attendance attained in the period of twelve months.

Moreover, in cases of no shipment to load or unload for a certain period of time, employers will have to pay a retainer allowance to stevedores registered to them.

“If an employer decides not to pay a retainer allowance for an illogical reason then the stevedore can approach the Ministry of Employment to lodge a complaint,” Mr Baker said.

“However the retainer allowance comes with certain conditions,” he further stressed.

These conditions include the provision that a stevedore benefitting from a retainer allowance should not work for any other stevedoring employer unless his employer agrees for the stevedore to take up an alternative job while there is no dock work.

“The stevedores will have to ask for permission because it would be unfair on the company to which they are registered to pay them a fixed salary while there is no dock work, yet they are working with another employer,” Mr Baker clarified.

The latest legislation also makes provision for the establishment of a Stevedore Committee which shall determine the minimum wage rates per tonnage per stevedore activities, endorse any agreement between stevedores and their employers, determine the rates for any other transactions that fall under the definition of dock work among others.

The committee will comprise of a representative each from the Seychelles Ports Authority (SPA), the Seychelles Fishing Authority (SFA), the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Employment, each employer and the workers' union(s) representing the stevedores.

In hindsight, the regulation is a step towards the formalisation of casual labour and, in the stevedores' case, means that they will have to pay their taxes and pensions.

According to Mr Baker, a stevedore on average can make between  R15,000 and R30,000 in a month if there is a consistent flow of dock work.

The legislation was also enforced with the aim of ensuring the security of the stevedores and the Ministry of Employment will work in close collaboration with the Seychelles Maritime Safety Administration (SMSA) to ensure that employers abide by the Occupational Safety and Health Regulations of 1991.