Coal India Wage Hike Pact

Coal India Ltd (CIL) and trade unions are awaiting the govt's approval for a wage agreement that recommends a 19% minimum guaranteed benefit to 238k non-executive employees of the miner

Coal India Chairman Pramod Agrawal has said it will be difficult for the PSU to give 50 per cent wage hike to workers, as demanded by the unions, due to financial constraints facing the company

The state-owned company is expected to begin talks this month that could result in paychecks climbing 20% or more.

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

Payment of arrears to be made in three stages, Rs 40,000 to be paid to staff before Diwali as one-time advance

Three points of disagreement with employee unions led to government-owned Coal India being unable to sign a wage agreement last week with its four central trade unions.Management and unions are to now meet in Kolkata on September 18-19 to take up the points of contention.One of the three issues of disagreeement is on benefits to workers' dependents. Another is Coal India's aim to keep its mines operating through the week. A third is on monetary benefits for contractual workers. Union leaders blamed the Union coal ministry, for allegedly compelling Coal India to include "unacceptable terms" in the talks.After reaching an accord on the late night of August 25, the formal agreement was to be signed on August 31, the day Sutirtha Bhattacharya retired as chairman. On August 30, senior company officials met the coal ministry in Delhi for a review meeting.Union leaders, who claim to have knowledge on the matter, say Union coal and power minister Piyush Goyal pushed at the meeting for ...