By Avinash Tavares
Misappropriation of Seafarers
Welfare Fund
SWFS has a total investment of a whopping Rs 485 Crores. Interestingly, the SWFS were not willing to reveal their cash flow under RTI. They have not revealed what is their annual income from these investments and how they spend the funds. However, they stated that their annual collection for the financial year 2017-18 was nearly Rs 54.9 Crores. They are also holding to a tune of Rs 99 Crores the Welfare Fund Contribution, including mandatory deposits of Recruitment & Placement Services License(RPSL).
Since the last few years, the SWFS has been collecting $10 from every seafarer working in catering, hospitality and other such staff who are engaged on board foreign passenger ships and cruise liner. Earlier, the SWFS were collecting funds only from seafarers working on cargo ships.
In spite of the ever-increasing funds, in 2018, 19200 beneficiaries of the scheme started receiving letters from the SWFS that the later is going to discontinue the facilities under MEMA scheme from 1st June 2018. The reason given was that the MEMA fund in continuously depleting. According to the Deputy Director General of Shipping, the out contribution from ship-owners towards welfare fund, which is meant for all seafarers and not only towards beneficiaries of MEMA, is being diverted towards a small proportion of seafarers under MEMA. “The SWFS has discontinued the MEMA scheme and instead start such schemes which would be for the welfare of all Indian seafarers and not just one category of seafarers”, stated the Deputy Director General of Shipping.
Since 1978, under the Monthly Ex-Gratia Monetary Assistance (MEMA) scheme, the Seafarers Welfare Fund Society (SWFS) disbursed a small amount to retired seamen till his death or, incase of his death, to his wife. The amount was initially Rs 75 per month which was increased to Rs 200. The fund was created from the contribution of Rs 500 per seamen upon their joining.
How Indian Cargo Seafarers are duped
The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) Standard Collective Agreement dated 1 January 2015, fixed $1653 as the ITF Wage scale for AB Seafarers (non-officer member of the deck crew ). However, the Indian affiliate of ITF which is NUSI , for reasons unknown, fixed the basic wage to the ILO Minimum wage of $614. The difference between the two wages is $949 and therefore, assuming that there are around 1,30,000 registered Indian seafarers, they are losing more than 12 million dollars or Rs 853 Crores worth of salary every month.
Pick Pocketing Crores of Rupees from Indian Seafarers
10 US dollars are being paid by the shipping companies across the world on behalf of every Indian they employ. For most Goan seafarers, this may be a small amount. However, there are around 1,30,000 registered Indian seafarers and around 50,000 unregistered seafarers who work on cruise liners. therefore the total annual collection amounts to over Rs 216 Crores. What happens to this money?
According to the information given to shipping companies by SWFC, the money is used for a variety of programs and schemes. However, the reality is that the schemes are only on paper. For example, the SWFC claims that the funds are given as Grants to various seafarers clubs/hostels/homes for recreational and other welfare facilities. According to Nasir Khan of NUSI, there are no Clubs, hostels or homes run by NUSI. This was confirmed by the General Secretary of NUSI, Abdulgani Serang, who is also a member on the board of SWFC.
Serang, who is based in Mumbai and who sources say is highly influential and has been virtually controlling both SWFC and NUSI, informed Herald that only when applications come they look into it. Interestingly, he wasn’t able to give any instance which scheme was implemented and when.
Herald asked Serang that since seafarers work on contract, how can seafarers take any benefit since they don’t have any proof of employment? Serang responded by stating that the $10 collection is not a retirement benefit for individual seafarers but a contribution for all the seafarers of India as a whole. He claims that they have directed the companies not to deduct the amount from the salary of the seafarers.
However, the company doesn’t reveal that they have deducted $10 per month from the seafarer’s salary since they revise the salary for every annual contract.
Where is the fund being diverted are the welfare schemes?
The SWFS has no record in online or in the public domain of their expenditure in the seafarer’s welfare schemes. According to Dixon Vaz, President of Goa Seafarers Association, seamen do not get any benefit. “At least the people working on Cargo ships and have CDC are on the record books and get some benefits such as pension. Those who work on cruise liners have no record of their employment since every year they sign a fresh contract. Because of this, there cannot claim any benefits”, he claimed
Facts about Seafarers Welfare Fund schemes:
• Seamen have no proof of service since they are hired on contract. Therefore claiming the benefits of schemes especially for widows becomes an almost impossible task
• There is no clear contract with seafarers about the benefits they will receive from the contribution after retirement
• SWFS has no ombudsmen such as those available for insurance and provident fund. DGShipping has a “Grievance Addressal Mechanism” but it is an offline process and may not cover cruise line employees.
• Crew members are kept in the dark over the total contribution every year and how the fund is utilised
• Seafarers have a poor impression of SWFS since they collect huge funds and in return give only Rs 200 per month to retired Indian seamen and widows.
• Death compensation of Rs 40000 is minuscule compared to the fund collected from each seaman of more than Rs 8000 annually. In context, if the seaman pays Rs 4000 annually to an LIC company for a term of 25 years, he will get a cover of Rs 25 lakhs.
• NUSI representative Nasir Khan has confirmed with herald that there are no club/hostels/homes for recreation set up. Therefore NUSI is receiving grants for non-existent facilities
• There is no benefit if the employee loses the job or takes early retirement
• NUSI hospital has shut down. Seafarers claim that they no longer get hospital benefits which were available to them at NUSI Hospital. However, Serang claims that they still give 40% of reimbursement for seamen admitted in any hospital.
Neither SWFS nor NUSI appears to be interested in resolving these issues. Seafarers claim that NUSI is working in the interest of the Government, hiring agents and shipping companies and not in the interest of the actual stakeholders which are the seafarers.
Conclusion
After going through the documents, minutes of the meetings of SWFS, websites of DGShipping, etc, one thing that can be concluded is that the workings of SWFS and NUSI are opaque. Other than the lack of clarity over how they utilise the funds, there is also an issue of foreign exchange. Considering they collect millions of dollars every month, shouldn’t SWFS be earning revenue from currency fluctuations? However, unless the cash flow of SWFS is revealed, no one will know whether or not there is a major financial scam taking place at the cost of Indian and especially Goan seafarers. The only person who knows all the facts is the General Secretary of General Secretary of NUSI, Abdulgani Serang who is also the board member of SWFS, the ex-treasurer of SWFS and is very close links with Minister for Shipping Nitin Gadkari.
