After the Ministry of Steel approved the pension scheme for Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited and Steel Authority of India Limited, the employees working in the two public sector entities have decided to up the ante to remove affordability clause for implementation of wage revision.
Wage revision is due for the executives from January 1, 2017, and non-executives from 2012. It is done once in five years for non-executives whereas for executives it is once in 10 years. The affordability clause introduced for all PSUs in Third Pay Revision Committee has triggered widespread anger among the employees.
The affordability clause says that for pay revision an organisation need to have profit for three consecutive years. Incurring of net losses by RINL and SAIL has delayed the wage revision. Incidentally, the last pay revision for executives was made in 2007 creating a situation where some non-executives have started drawing more salary than the managerial rank officers.
Moreover, as an austerity measure, production incentive has been stopped depriving the employees of a monthly benefit of ₹5,000 to ₹10,000 from 2007 by the PRC.
“Now we have decided to insist on consideration of three of best of 10 years for wage revision instead of profit-making continuously for three years so that we can meet burgeoning cost of living,” Katam S.S. Chandra, general secretary of Steel Executives’ Association (SEA) told The Hindu.
As per affordability clause, an organisation has to earn profits for three consecutive years. RINL has been incurring net losses since 2015-16 and as per indications it is poised to earn profit during current fiscal going by its performance in the first two quarters.
RINL has 6,000-odd officers and 12,000 plus non-executives.