Higher bonus to pinch Coal India

Bonus of Rs 26,500 promised to non-exec employees to lead to annual outgo of Rs 940 cr this year

State-run Coal India Ltd has said that the bonus of Rs 26,500 that it has given for non-executive employees will lead to an annual outgo of around Rs 940 crore this year.

This is a 28 per cent rise from the outflow of about Rs 740 crore during the last financial year. “Last year, we paid a bonus of Rs 21,000 crore. Since, our profits were good this year, we have increased this to Rs 26,500 for the more than 3,50,000 non-executive employees in our company. Hence the outgo has increased to more than Rs 200 crore compared last year,” said  R Mohan Das, Director (Personnel & Industrial Relations), CIL.

 

The Kolkata-based coal major had increased the bonus last year from Rs 17,000 to Rs 21,000, when various unions went for a one-day strike causing a loss of more than Rs 100 crore and were threatening to go for a three-day strike.

On February this year, the Maharatna major had signed the National Coal Wage Agreement-IX. According to CIL sources, while the impact of the agreement was Rs.6,500 crore in the first year and around Rs 4,000 crore annually, during the five-year tenure of the pact which is effective July 1, 2011.