CIL staff insist on increased bonus no, says management

A tussle between the management of Coal India Ltd (CIL) and its workers’ union over the demand for increased bonus is set to intensify as the state-owned miner rejected the employees’ demand for an increase in annual bonus payment.

Coal India chairman N C Jha on Wednesday termed as “unjustified” the demand for paying Rs 23,500 as bonus. “The bonus is given out of our profit. There was zero growth in production last fiscal. So there was no additional contribution by anybody in the form of physical performance. The demand is not justified,” Jha told Business Standard.

Kolkata-headquartered Coal India is the world’s largest producer of coal. While its production remained flat at 431 mt last financial year, the company posted a 12.9 per cent jump in net profit in 2010-11 at Rs 10,867 crore owing to higher realisation from selling the fuel at market price.

Coal India is also India’s largest listed employer and has a current employee strength of 397,000. Around 360,000 of these are workers who were offered an annual bonus of Rs 17,000 each. The workers went on a strike on Monday protesting against the less bonus, and demanding an additional Rs 6,500 for each.

FESTIVAL BONANZA
	CIL	Indian Railways
Profit	10,867#	—
Surplus	—	4,104#
Bonus  offered**	17,000*	8,975
*as offered by the company **(Rs per worker) #Figures in Rscr for 2010-11

This additional amount would increase the 1975-founded company’s burden by Rs 240 crore. “What we have offered is 13 per cent more than the bonus payment of last year,” pointed out Jha. “Paying anything beyond this would mean that workers are asking for somebody else’s share in profits.”

Not satisfied with the management’s argument, the unions have threatened to go on a strike soon. If the management continues to be rigid, then the workers would be forced to go on a second strike of “not less than 72 days”, according to Left Front-backed All India Coal Workers Federation (AICWF).

“The management has hurt our sentiment by not holding discussions with the workers’ unions before deciding on the Rs 17,000 bonus for this year,” said Jibon Roy general secretary of the CITU-affiliated AICWF. “The company has paid 39 per cent of gross profit as dividend to the stakeholders, including the foreign investors. Even so, it has offered only a 13 per cent of net profit as bonus to workers,” Roy told Business Standard.

The workers unions have expressed willingness to negotiate and settle the matter if the management calls for a meeting with a “flexible approach”.

The Union government, on its part, said it did not consider any demand by the workers as wrong. Coal minister Sriprakash Jaiswal said it was necessary to address the grievances of workers so as to create an atmosphere for positive performance.