Coal India executives call off strike

New Delhi: Coal India executives, who were protesting against non-fulfilment of their demands including performance-related pay, have called off their strike after talks with the management.

"The strike has been deferred as assurances have been given by the Coal India management on their (employees) issue with regard to performance-related pay referred by the Committee of Secretaries to the Cabinet. So, that is a major progress," CIL Director (HR) R Mohan Das told PTI.

Representational image: Reuters

Coal Mines Officers Association of India (CMOAI) General Secretary P K Singh said, "We have decided to defer the strike after the assurance for four to five weeks."

The CMOAI had earlier called for a three-day strike that began Thursday.

Coal India has a strong workforce of 3.49 lakh employees, of which 19,000 executives had called for strike pressing for implementation of performance-related pay and new pension scheme, which requires the Coal Ministry's nod.

CMOAI President V P Singh had earlier said: "We are meeting with Coal India management...to hold discussions with regard to performance-related pay for executives."

He had also said the Committee of Secretaries held a meeting on the issue and decided to refer the matter to the Cabinet.

The two-day strike called by trade unions in February last year had led to a production loss of around 0.71 million tonnes (MT).

CIL accounts for over 80 per cent of domestic coal production. It has fixed a target of 482 MT for 2013-14. The company, before the strike, was expecting only 465 MT of production.

CIL workers' unions had said they are not supporting the strike and expressed their keenness to keep production on track.

"When the economy is in doldrums and Coal India is facing a shortfall in production, strike is not desired at this stage," Jibon Roy, general secretary, All India Coal Workers Federation, had said.