Newkerala reported that Centre of Indian Trade Unions congratulated the 500,000 coal mine workers all over India for a successful wage agreement they arrived at in New Delhi on January 24th 2009.
Mr MK Pandhe president of CITU said that this is the first wage agreement signed in public sector for a five year wage settlement contrary to the government of India guideline for a 10 year wage settlement.
The agreement was possible because of the remarkable achievement of the five federations belonging to CITU, INTUC, BMS, AITUC and HMS and a call for nationwide strike on January 5th to 7th 2009.
The agreement provides for minimum benefit of 24% of gross wages with effect from July 1st 2006 and annual increment of 3% with cumulative effect. It provides for open ended scale which ensures no stagnation to any employee during the period of agreement.
The agreement gives 50% rise in all allowances with effect from January 1st 2009. The underground allowance will be 12.5% of the basic and will be treated as basic wage.
The agreement will ensure a minimum base wage of a coalminer at INR 9346, the highest in public sector undertakings in India so far. The cost of the settlement for Coal India is estimated to be about INR 4000 crore annually.
Some disruptive elements in the coal industry have been trying to confuse the workers by advocating 10 year agreement. The CITU is happy to note the powerful rebuff given to such elements by the coal workers by supporting the agreement signed by the five Federations.
The CITU draws the attention of the workers to carry forward the struggle against privatization, outsourcing and contractorisation in coal mines. There is an urgent need to fight against rampant corruption prevalent in coal mines, unsafe working conditions and theft of coal prevalent in Indian mines. The united struggle of the coal workers should give top priority to these issues so that Indian coal miners can meet all requirements of the country by public sector coal industry.
The CITU appeals to all coal miners to strengthen the unity achieved by them in this struggle so that they can play an important role in strengthening public sector coal industry which is being undermined by the UPA government.
(Sourced from citucentre.org)
