SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, Sept 29: The bonus agreement for 2.35 lakh coalmen that was signed at Ranchi on Wednesday evening has triggered mixed reactions from the national trade unions. While four trade unions have supported the agreement claiming it as the highest in the public sector, INTUC termed it (Rs 76,500) a meagre amount.
Vice–president of Rashtriya Khan Mazdoor Federation (INTUC), miners’ frontal organization of Congress, AK Jha today said that the decision on annual bonus to coalmen is disappointing, sad and surprising. He alleged that three trade unions toed on the line of Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) at the meeting and accepted whatever the management offered. BMS is the BJP’s labour wing.
At the meeting, the CIL management and trade unions representative signed the agreement on a bonus of Rs 76,500 to 2.35 lakh coalmen.
“The market value of Rs 76,500 bonus in the present context is equal to Rs 35,000. Indian currency is dropping badly against the dollar. So, INTUC urges the union coal minister and CIL management to review the bonus amount (Rs 76,500) once again and pay the additional amount to the coalmen in Diwali,” Jha said.
An INTUC leader alleged that the trade unions did not put up the matter properly at the meeting. “They have no courage to oppose the lines of BMS,” he said.
However, senior All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) leader and JBCCI member Lakhan Lal Mahto defended the agreement and claimed that the coalmen have received the highest bonus among the public sector units in the country. “Only NMDC has given more than CIL but it has hardly 5,000 employees while CIL has a workforce of 2.35 lakh miners,” he said.
HMS leader Sidharth Gautam has also welcomed the bonus amount and said that it was the best decision taken in the interests of the coalmen.
Lakhan Lal Mahto said AITUC will not get involved in the blame game on bonuses but will make it clear that during the Congress regime, merely Rs 50 to Rs 100 was increased in the annual bonus of miners. “On Wednesday, at Ranchi, we were able to increase it by Rs 4000,” he added.
Meanwhile, representatives of only four trade unions: BMS, AITUC, CITU and HMS were invited to the meeting at Ranchi’s CMPDIL. CIL had kept INTUC’s Rashtriya Khan Mazdoor Federation out of it.
INTUC vice–president charged that the 2.50 lakh contractual miners also had high hopes but CIL deprived them of this benefit. He said trade union representatives failed to put pressure on this issue.
