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Coal India agrees to officers' demands, strike called off

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The officer-grade staff of Coal India, which started their three-day strike on Thursday, have called off their agitation and joined work on Friday, after the company's management hurriedly agreed to their demands in a bid to avoid the embarrassment of losing out on coal production and widening gap between targeted and actual production during the peak season and the terminal month of the fiscal.

The withdrawal of strike by about 15,000 officers followed a decision by the committee of secretaries on Wednesday to implement Performance Related Pay and also assuring the officers that their other demands would be implemented on a time bound manner. "During the meeting we were told that the committee of secretaries, which was sitting on the file for long, have just taken a decision on Wednesday recommending implementation of the variable pay for all officers. The file will now go to the Cabinet Secretary following which a cabinet note would be prepared. This will take some time and we expect it to happen by June. Till then we are deferring our decision to strike," Saurabh Dubey, senior vice president of Coal Mines officers' Association of India, told dna.

But with election around the corner and model code of conduct coming into effect, the government would need the permission of the Election Commission to implement the decision on variable pay. "Committee of Secretaries has already made a recommendation for approaching the Cabinet for modifications with regard to the performance-related pay. Since the elections are around the corner, the government needs to go to the Election Commission on the issue," Coal India chairman S Narsing Rao told agencies.

On issues of new pension scheme, correcting some anomalies in pay structures and career growth steps, Dubey said assurances have been given that these issues would be addressed within the next three months. 

Coal India chairman claimed that production loss for a day due to the strike was only 4 lakh tonnes. "'The loss has been less this time as we utilised the supervisors and workers to the extent possible," Rao said.

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