The ongoing wage talks covering more than three lakh workers in the public sector coal industry has now entered the final lap and indications are that, barring any major hurdles, the National Coal Wage Agreement-X may be signed by this month-end.
The final round of the talks is set to be held here on August 31, which is also the last scheduled working day of Sutirtha Bhattacharyya, the current CMD of Coal India Ltd. The five-year wage pact covers the unionised workers in the subsidiaries of Coal India Ltd. and the Singareni Collieries Company Ltd. NCWA-IX expired on June 30, 2016.
An office-bearer of the All India Trade Union Congress told The Hindu that a 20% increase in basic wages and a 4% rise in special allowances had been agreed upon. The trade unions had asked for a 50% increase, according to an official of the union affiliated to the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh.
CIL officials as well as senior trade union leaders like Ramendra Kumar of the AITUC affiliated Indian Mine Workers said that efforts would be on to seal the pact on August 31 as the arrival of a new CMD may delay matters indefinitely. “Mr. Bhattacharya has had a long three-year stint as CMD, if the NCWA-X is not signed in his tenure then things may get delayed,” a CIL official said.
Although the final shape will be clear only on August 31, it appears that the coal company managements have succeeded in clamping a freeze on certain special allowances and perks like housing allowances. “They had wanted a freeze on overtime too, but that would be bad in law as per the Mines Act”, a TU source said. Overtime now accounts for around 20% of CIL’s wage costs of around ₹20,000 crore. CIL’s annual employee benefit expenses stood at ₹33,514 crore in 2016-17.
It has been provisioning for the wage increases with a ₹688.9 crore provision during the first quarter of this fiscal for workers and ₹89.3 crore for executives (which has fallen due from January 2017).