Days after the last edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale ended, Udaipur-based American artist Waswo X Waswo created a flutter on the art world when he shared on YouTube a video of him discarding parts of his art work ostensibly after haggling over wages for loading the work on a carriage with some trade unionists.
First, Waswo wasn’t part of the biennale, which had contracted INTUC and CITU workers to load or unload works of art for the event.
While CPI(M) leader M.A. Baby jumped the gun by tendering an immediate apology to the artist, it eventually turned out, in an inquiry conducted by the Labour Department, that the workers who demanded unreasonable wages were part of the Swathanthra Thozhilali Union (STU) affiliated to the IUML.
The facts notwithstanding, the biennale and the CITU had come under attack for the incident.
Important agreement
Two years on, with days to go for the next edition of the biennale to begin, the Kochi Biennale Foundation (KBF) has inked an important agreement with representatives of headload workers’ unions at Fort Kochi and Mattancherry for handling works of art across the venues of the art festival located at these two suburban centres.
“The agreement, which outlines each party’s responsibilities and standardises remuneration, entails an across-the-board 30 per cent reduction in the rates for unloading and installing artworks in relation to the KMB in 2014. This makes the charges for KMB 2016 comparable to the going rates for handling handicrafts,” said a release in this regard.
“The move to fix rates came after discussions were held between the Foundation, the CITU, the INTUC and other organisations, to pre-empt labour issues as had arisen at previous biennale editions. With containers of installations and artworks streaming into the venues, a small army of about 100 headload workers have rolled up their sleeves to ensure India’s only biennale gets under way without a hitch,” it added.
B. Hamza of the CITU said that the union was duty-bound to support such a prestigious event. “Our usual timings are from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., but as many of the works arrive in early morning hours, we stay back to unload them,” he said.
Overtime allowance
Besides fixing an overtime allowance of 20 per cent from the base rate for any after-hours work, the agreement standardises rates with respect to the type of vehicle bringing the works and materials to the venue – with the highest slabs reserved for container transports and the lowest for three-wheeler cargo vehicles. “Usually, our work ends with unloading the materials at the spot, but for biennale we also help move and arrange the artworks according to the artists’ wish. We do this since we recognise that with the inception of the biennale, Kochi has been elevated to a new level,” said A.M. Ayub of the INTUC.
“The rate slabs at Mattancherry are different from Fort Kochi as the workers fall under Kerala Head load Workers Welfare Board. However, these rates have now been made universal for KMB-2016. The workers are all cooperating for this important event,” said a senior official with the Labour Department, which had been involved in formulating the agreement.
