As the Director, Personnel and Industrial Relations, Mr R. Mohan Das, was supposed to handle the crucial responsibility of the five-year wage negotiation on behalf of Coal India Ltd with the central trade unions beginning this month.

But before the negotiations could begin, Mr Mohan Das now has to mediate between two warring factions of the Congress-backed INTUC – each claiming for their “rightful” slot on the negotiation table.

While the in-fighting (within INTUC) is delaying the formation of the joint bi-partite consultative committee (JBC) and the rolling out of the National Coal Wage Agreement; one of the INTUC (Indian National Trade Union Congress) unions have threatened to go on strike if their demands are not met.

“The INTUC union, led by its General Secretary, Mr Rajendra Prasad Singh, has threatened to go on strike from August 8-10, if the JBC is not formed immediately,” Mr Mohan Das told Business Line .

According to him, the problem cropped up as Mr Chandrasekhar Dubey, another INTUC leader, has claimed control over the Dhanbad-based INTUC affiliated Rashtriya Koyla Mazdoor Sangh.

Mr Dubey's claims are reportedly backed by an order of the Ranchi High Court.

CIL, meanwhile, has invited all the concerned parties to a meeting on July 7 to decide on the shape and size of the JBC.

“Though we had little intention to interfere into issues solely within the domain of trade unions, we are now dragged into it,” a company official said adding that the July 7 meeting was expected to decide which faction should represent INTUC's cause during the negotiation.

Apart from INTUC, Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS), Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) and All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) are other constituents of the wage negotiation panel.

With the last wage agreement at CIL having expired in June, the coal major is in a hurry to start dialogue for the next agreement and financial provisioning.

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