Trade unions call for 3-day coal workers' strike from Oct 5 over wage payment

Five national trade unions, including the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), have announced a three-day coal workers’ strike from October 5 over issues pertaining to wage payment.

The trade unions also served a memorandum in this regard to the Coal India chairman, they said in a joint release.

Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) senior vice-president A K Jha said the decision was taken during a meeting of representatives of all the five trade unions in Ranchi on Thursday.

In the memorandum, they claimed that the September salary of the non-executive miners and staff in CIL and Singareni Collieries Company Ltd (SCCL) would be paid on the basis of the National Coal Wage Agreement (NCWA)-10, instead of NCWA-11, which was inked in May.

Jha said the salaries of July and August were paid on the basis of NCWA-11. “All miners (around 2.60 lakh)... will be on strike from October 5-7, if the salary of September is not paid timely in October as per the NCWA-11 agreement,” the release said.

In an exchange filing in May, Coal India had said 19 per cent minimum guaranteed benefit (MGB) with effect from July 1, 2021 on emoluments (as on 30.06.2021) and 25 per cent increase in allowances have been granted in NCWA-11.

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