Strike impact minimal at SAIL, RINL, Coal India

Thousands of workers at state-owned steel plants boycotted work while some remained absent in protest against the government policies, according to SWFI, the apex body of steel workers in India.

However, operations remained unaffected at the plants.

The impact of strike was minimal on Coal India too.

The protest was against privatisation of public sector companies, change in labour laws, low wages for contactual workers and other issues, Steel Workers Federation of India (SWFI) Working President P K Das told PTI over phone.

"The strike was observed at some plants. Some boycotted work and some remained absent," he said.

A SAIL official said production remained unaffected as workers in the night shift stayed back at the plants resulting in 100 per cent attendance in the 6 AM to 2 PM shift.

Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) has about 70,000 employees. It has five integrated steel plants namely Bhilai Steel Plant in Chhattisgarh, Rourkela Steel Plant in Odisha, Bokaro Steel Plant in Jharkhand and Durgapur Steel Plant and IISCO Steel Plant in West Bengal.

Besides, it has three special steel units in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal and a ferro alloy plant in Maharashtra.

An official of another steel PSU Rashtriya Ispat Nigam (RINL) said while all executives came to work, 80 per cent workers boycotted work.

There are about 18,000 employees in RINL, out of which about 6,000 are executives, the RINL official said.

According to a Coal India official, there was 89 per cent attendance (as of 2 pm ) at all the subsidiaries of the coal major.

Coal India accounts for over 80 per cent of the domestic coal output.

According to an official of CCL--a Coal India arm--all its 34 open cast and seven underground mines were operational.