Coal India signs wage pact with unions

Calcutta, Oct. 10: Coal India has signed a five-year wage agreement with its workers' unions, which will have an estimated impact of Rs 5,667 crore annually on the public sector miner.

The "Memorandum of Agreement for National Coal Wage Agreement-X has been signed on October 10 for a period of five years from July 1, 2016 to June 30, 2021", Coal India said in a filing to the BSE today.

"This agreement will impact 2.98 lakh coal workers and the total estimated average annual impact would be Rs 5,667 crore," the regulatory filing said.

S.Q. Zama, secretary-general of the Indian National Mine Workers Federation, said in a statement that of the five central unions in the coal industry, only three - AITUC, CITU and BMS - signed the wage pact. While HMS has refused to sign, INTUC was out because of a court stay.

The three unions AITUC, CITU and BMS represent around 30 per cent of the 3.6 lakh coal workers of both of CIL and Singareni Collieries Company, Zama claimed.

Among other demands, the central trade unions at the public sector coal miner wanted at least a 25 per cent increase in gross wages.

"The minimum guaranteed benefit which was 25 per cent in the earlier wage board has been reduced to 20 per cent, that too freezing all the allowances on the due date of the agreement for the coming 5 years," INTUC had said in an earlier statement.

D.D. Ramanandan, general secretary of the CITU-affiliated All India Coal Workers Federation, had earlier said that the unions had settled for 20 per cent minimum guaranteed benefit as the management was earlier not contributing to the medical scheme but now has agreed to provide Rs 18,000 per person.

"We have reached an understanding with the Coal India management for a 20 per cent minimum guaranteed benefit," he had said.

Every five years, all central workmen unions negotiate with the management for a salary hike through a series of meetings. Validity of the last pay hike expired on June 31 last year.

Coal India Ltd