Breaking the stalemate on wage negotiations, Coal India Ltd (CIL) and the four central trade unions, BMS, HMS, AITUC and CITU, have inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) recommending 19 per cent Minimum Guaranteed Benefit (MGB) to its 2.38 lakh non-executive employees as part of the ongoing National Coal Wage Agreement –XI (NCWA-XI).
MGB of 19 per cent is on the emoluments as of June 30, 2021, which include basic pay, variable dearness allowance, special dearness allowance, and attendance bonus.
The Telangana-based Singareni Collieries Company Ltd (SCCL) is the other signatory to the MoU. A total of around 2.82 lakh employees of both the state-owned coal entities, CIL and SCCL, who were on the rolls of the company as of July 1, 2021, would be the beneficiaries, said a press statement issued by CIL. SCCL’s employees account close to 44,000.
The recommendation was reached in the eighth meeting of Joint Bipartite Committee for the Coal Industry-XI held at CIL’s corporate headquarters in Kolkata on January 3.
A formal pact for the eleventh version of NCWA, effective from July 1, 2021 for a period of five years, would be finalized after deliberations on remaining issues other than MGB are concluded.
The four CTUs have taken a lead in finalizing the MGB amicably. CIL is having harmonious industrial relations and the unions are also cognizant of the importance of achieving the current’s fiscal’s production target, the release said.