Coal India workers on one-day strike for higher bonus

More than 300,000 workers at state-run Coal India, the world’s largest coal miner, have gone on a one-day strike demanding higher annual bonus, senior company and union officials said on Monday.

The strike hit operations of the company that produces about one million tonnes of coal a day, one official told Reuters. Exact details of loss of output were not immediately available, the official, who did not want to be identified, said.

[caption id=“attachment_103649” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Coal India has offered an annual bonus of Rs 17,000 per worker. Reuters”]  [/caption]

Five recognised unions, which represent most of Coal India’s 330,000 workers, had earlier given notice for the one-day strike, asking for a minimum bonus of Rs 25,000 ($508).

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Coal India has offered an annual bonus of Rs 17,000 per worker.

“It was a trailer. We may go for more stronger protest in the future,” Hemanta Kumar Pradhan, secretary at the Indian National Mine Workers Federation, one of the unions, told Reuters from Orissa.

The miner is separately in wage negotiations with the unions, and is likely to make a provision for Rs 2,500 crore this fiscal year for a likely wage increase, a senior finance official had said earlier.

Kolkata-based Coal India, which accounts for 80 percent of coal production in energy-hungry India, reported a 64 percent rise in its June quarter net profit, but has said it may miss production target this year due to delays in environmental clearances at some of its mines.

Reuters