Contract staff will help Coal India tide over Sept 2 strike

A sizeable coal stock and BJP-backed Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh not participating in the stir are other reasons Coal India can take respite from

Coal India might not face production loss despite four central trade unions going ahead with a one-day strike, primarily due to a huge contractual workforce engaged in production and offtake operations.

A sizeable coal stock and the Bharatiya Janata Party-backed Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh not participating in the September 2 strike are other reasons Coal India can take respite from despite the strike.

The Congress-backed Indian National Trade Union Congress (Intuc), Communist Party of India (CPI)-backed All India Trade Union Congress and CPI(Marxist)-backed Centre of Indian Trade Unions have given a call to stop mining activities in the company for a day, to support the nationwide strike called to protest several government policies.

The trade unions are protesting further disinvestment and strategic sale of the nationalised coal sector. They want infrastructure sector status for Coal India, as well as revision of wages, according to the Joint Bipartite Committee for Coal Industry resolution, among others.

Over the years, Coal India had gradually outsourced production operations. While the company has 326,000 direct employees, the number of outsourced or contractual workers has risen sharply to 65,000 over the past three years. Most of these contractual workers are engaged in last-mile operations, opencast mining and overburden removal.

According to trade unions in the company, 55 per cent of the 536.51 million tonne (mt) coal mined during 2015-16 was carried out by contractual workers. This ratio was poised to increase to at least 58 per cent this financial year. Department workers, under the company's payscale, contributed to just 18 per cent of the production, trade unions claimed.

Contractual workers are usually not affiliated to any trade union.

Niladri Bhattacharjee, an analyst with KPMG, told Business Standard: "A coal stock of over 60 mt is already lying with Coal India. Besides, considering the lean coal demand situation in the country, the focus is on offtake and rake-loading for dispatch. I don't think this strike will be able to cripple loading."

S Q Zama, secretary-general of the Intuc-led National Mine Workers' Federation, claimed the production might be hit as much as 80 per cent on the day of the strike. This would imply Coal India not losing even one mt of production that day. However, he claimed, Intuc was steadily expanding its membership among contractual workers and they are expected to join the strike.

Senior officials of Coal India are concerned about railway workers joining the strike. "The only concern here is if the railway workers join the strike. If they do, then rake-loading (and thus, offtake) will be affected. Otherwise, there isn't any cause for worry," a senior official said.