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Badal Sanyal

KOLKATA, July 24

EVEN as the seven-day strike call, given by all the Central trade unions operating in the domestic coal industry stands, the Union Ministry of Coal and Mines has initiated moves to avert the strike, scheduled to begin from August 5. The office of the Chief Labour Commissioner, as per instructions of the Union Labour Minister, has decided to begin "conciliatory" meetings with the union leaders for averting the strike.

Though the strike notice was addressed to the Secretary in the Union Ministry of Coal and Mines, Coal India Ltd (CIL), on behalf of its administrative Ministry, has convened a meeting on July 26 to examine the rationale behind the 21-point charter of demands submitted in support of the strike. Leaders of all the unions such as BMS, INTUC, CITU, AITUC and HMP and a few others have been invited to attend the meeting.

The Chief Labour Commissioner has, on the other hand, convened a separate meeting in New Delhi on July 29 and the same union leaders have been asked to attend the meeting with detailed documents substantiating the rationale behind the demands. These two meetings will be followed by another high-level meeting to be attended by the Minister of State for Coal and Mines.

Since most of the demands are somewhat non-economic in nature, CIL prefers that the Ministry of Coal and Mines should find out a way to avert the strike. The main economic demand, which relates to the formation of the Joint Bipartite Committee on Coal Industry (JBCCI) for finalisation of National Coal Wage Agreement-VII (NCWA-VII) has also to be addressed by the Ministry, because steel manufacturing companies such as Tata Steel and IISCO with captive coal mines have expressed their unwillingness to become party to any industry-wide wage revision exercise.

These two steel makers have argued that they find it difficult to implement the industry-wide wage agreement because the wages are not linked to the companies' capacity to pay. Citing the past experience of NCWA-V and VI, IISCO has said that they were unable to pay even the arrears of NCWA-V owing to the financial crunch. In such a situation, there was no question of implementation of NCWA-VI, it is pointed out.

Against this backdrop, how can the company agree to be a party in JBCCI for finalisation of NCWA-VII, it is argued.

Tata Steel has said that it was also beyond its capacity to pay the industry-wide wages to its colliery employees because the negotiated wages were not linked to its capacity to pay.

Incidentally, CIL has expressed the same view particularly in regard to its financially sick subsidiaries such as Eastern Coalfields Ltd (ECL), Bharat Coking Coal Ltd (BCCL) and Central Coalfields Ltd (CCL). In this backdrop, the formation of JBCCI for NCWA-VII may prove to be a tough job for the Ministry of Coal and Mines. But the issue has still to be addressed properly so as to avert the proposed strike.

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