Coal news and updates

Employees' unions at Coal India have decided to advance their proposed three-day strike so that it coincides with the follow-on offer of the staterun monopoly producer, a decision the workers say they have taken because none of their demands have been met. 

 

The unions had earlier threatened to go on strike from December 17 but the follow-on offer (FPO) is likely to hit the market between December 11 and 15. "We will change the date of the three-day strike to match the timing of the public issue. The final date of the strike will thus be declared once the date of the FPO is known. The strike will start at least a day before the FPO," said Jibon Roy, secretarygeneral of CITU union at Coal India. 

 

SQ Zama, secretary-general of Indian Mineworkers' Federation, which is affiliated to Indian National Trade Union Congress and is the biggest of Coal India's five trade unions, said a meeting would be held on November 16 to forge a consensus among all unions. The workers will go ahead with the strike if their demands are not met, Roy said, adding that the unions had asked for a meeting with the coal minister and Coal India management. In a recent letter to the management, the unions said that they had postponed the strike from September 24 to December 17 after their last meeting in which they got an impression that some of their demands would be met. 

 

The demands include a halt to the proposed restructuring of the company, reinstatement of the special female voluntary retirement scheme, increase in wages for contract workers, lifting of the ban on recruitment and filling up of all vacancies, retrieval of coal blocks allotted for captive use to private parties and re-allotment of such blocks to Coal India and its subsidiaries. 

 

 

Source: ET