New wage pact sees 88% hike in CIL basic

Tue,Feb07, 2012

Kolkata: The new wage pact signed by the state-run Coal India Ltd (CIL) last week has seen an 88 per cent increase in minimum basic of its employees to Rs 15,712 per month, as against Rs 8,360 during the previous deal.

The National Coal Wage Agreement (NCWA) IX covers the two public sector coal firms — CIL and Singareni Collieries Company Ltd (SCCL). The pact signed with trade Unions last week also saw a 25 per cent rise in wages, which put an additional burden of Rs 6,500 crore on the firm.

The hike, covering 3.63 lakh non-executive work force, would be effective retrospectively from 1 July 2011 is for a five-year period. “The minimum basic in NCWA IX now will be Rs. 15,712 per month, an increase of 88 per cent from Rs 8,360 of NCWA VIII. The other important highlights of the agreement are a special allowance of 4 per cent of revised basic; HRA of 2 per cent of the basic pay for those who have not been provided with residential accommodation in other than urban area; post retirement medicare scheme for retired non-executives and their spouses to be finalized within 3 months,” a CIL statement said.

The agreement was inked in Delhi between central trade unions — like the Congress-backed Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), Left backed-CITU and AITUC, Hind Mazdoor Sabha, BJP-backed Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh — and the Kolkata-based firm’s management. “ As per the NCWA VIII, which came into effect from July 1, 2006 workers got a raise of 24 per cent in the wages, which had an impact of around Rs 2,500 crore, so this was more than what they had expected,” , R Mohandas, director (personnel) of Coal India Ltd (CIL) had said.

While CIL offered a hike of 10 per cent when the talks started, the workers unions were demanding a 50 per cent hike. (sourced BS)