 "A miner at a coal mine Photo: Shutterstock")
The trade unions have already served the notice to Coal India, SCCL and the Coal Secretary.
According to trade union leaders, the proposed merger of the CMPF with EPF will result in the pension of workers reducing to a third of the existing one.
As per D D Ramanandan, general secretary of CPI-M supported All India Coal Workers Federation, the minimum pension for a worker will be reduced to Rs 7,500 per month from the existing minimum pension of Rs 20,000 a month.
"The Centre is devising ways to cut down the legitimate pay of the workers and control the outgo from its coffers by depriving the workers of their legal benefits," he said.
Trade union sources said the decision to proceed with the strike was taken in the office of the BJP-backed Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh in Delhi, after talks between the trade union representatives, Coal India and government representatives failed.
S Q Zama, secretary general of the Congress-supported Indian National Mineworkers' Federation, said that while the 10th Joint Bi-partite Committee for the Coal Industry (JBCCI), a body comprising of trade union, Coal India management and government representatives were deliberating and negotiating the revision of wage and pension benefits, the Centre, without informing any trade unions, constituted the Committee to look into the merger of CMPF and EPF.
"This is backstabbing by the government. They formed the committee on April 19 and no trade unions even had any clue. How can the government toy with the workers' future even without consulting them"? Zama said.
Sources in Coal India said the government's decision to merge the CMPF with EPF might have stemmed from the fact that the current pension fund faces a deficit of at least Rs 26,000 crore which needs to be replaced if it continues to dole out benefits to the workers. A merger of the CMPF and EPF may have been a step in that direction.
The current available fund in the pension corpus is Rs 13,000 crore from which pension to around 300,000 employees is given.
| CHARTER OF DEMANDS |
| Stop merger of CMPF and EPF |
| Continue CMPF pension as it exists |
| Fully implement NCWA-IX agreement |
| Early settlement of 10th wage negotiations for coal miners |
| Stop contract system of labour in perennial nature of job; contractor employees to be paid equal wage for equal work in the interim |
| Restore double wages for Rest Day working. Stop ceiling/restriction on OT |
| Withdraw the decision on closure of mines |
Zama countered the claim stating that the trade unions had proposed to increase the contribution to the pension fund by the employees from the current four per cent to five per cent while the company or the government could contribute two per cent higher than the existing eight per cent.
"This would have raised the available corpus in the pension fund. But while we were discussing it in the meetings, the government went ahead with the idea to form a committee to look into merging the CMPF with EPF", he said.
Under the current structure, a total of 12 per cent is deducted from the employee's salary. Eight per cent goes as contribution to provident fund while four per cent goes to the pension fund.
Although the notice of the strike includes a seven-point demand, the second major issue of contention is over the delay in wage revision.
The wage agreement finalised in the Ninth JBCCI expired on June 31, 2016 which called for fresh round of negotiations. While the Tenth JBCCI shaped up in November 2016, the government, Coal India and the trade unions are yet to arrive at any final conclusion.
Trade union leaders alleged that the government and Coal India is just killing time in the JBCCI meetings as nothing could be worked out.
While the trade unions had asked for a 50 per cent hike, they alleged that Coal India's proposal over wage revision is confusing. Instead of working out any percentage hike, the coal behemoth had presented a budget of Rs. 3,000 crore which would be divided equally among the workers.
"This isn't only confusing but dubious as well. As per our calculations, this amount doesn't work out to even a 26 per cent hike", Zama said.
A trade union leader said anything below a 26 per cent hike will not be acceptable.
Unlike other industrial segments, workers in the coal industry are covered under the Coal Mines Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1948 and don't fall under the purview of the Employees Provident Fund & Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952.
Thus any changes in the EPF, which affects the majority of the country's workers, is not applicable on the coal sector.
Workers view the CMPF not just as a necessary protection in old age but are reluctant to part with their special treatment.
Coal India officials estimate that a three-day strike translates into a production loss of 4.5 million tonne of coal.
