Coal India signs 'historic' pact to raise workers' wages by 20%

CMD Gopal Singh says the deal has been clinched at 20%, against a demand for 50% increase in wages

State-owned Coal India Ltd (Ltd) on Tuesday said it had signed a wage agreement with workers' unions proposing a 20 per cent increase in salaries for five years, a move that would  have an estimated impact of Rs 5,667 crore a year on the world's largest coal miner.

Calling the signing of the wage agreement a really historic day for Coal India, CIL Chairman and Managing Director Gopal Singh said the agreement was clinched at 20 per cent hike in salaries against workers' demand for a 50 per cent raise.

"Initially the demand was for 50 per hike in the wages in the basic wages of our employees... today we clinched the agreement with 20 per cent hike in the wages as on July 1, 2016, plus perks," Singh told reporters here. "Today is really a historic day for Coal India ... This is the 10th wage agreement ... We have clinched this agreement in the 10th meeting today (October 10)," he said.

Every fifth year at both Coal India (CIL) and Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) there is revision of the wages of the employees. Coal India has about three lakh employees and Singareni about 55,000 employees. Wage Agreement of the employees was due from July, 2016.

Singh said the wage agreement was on the negotiation table for more than one year. The main thrust area of this wage agreement is life after retirement. This is the first time that Coal India as well as workers, both sides, will be contributing seven per cent each towards the Pension funds," he said.

Singh said the decision was also taken to set up a Medical Trust adding that workers will be contributing Rs 40,000 each. Coal India will contribute Rs 18,000 per head to the corpus which will of Rs 58,000 per head.

S Q Zama, the Secretary General of Indian National Mine Workers Federation told PTI that of the five central unions in the coal industry, only three -- AITUC, CITU and BMS -- signed the wage pact. "HMS refused to sign, and INTUC was out because of High Court stay," Zama said. The three unions of AITUC, CITU and BMS represent 25-30 per cent of the over 3 lakh coal workers of both of CIL and SCCL, Zama added.