KOLKATA | March 01, 2017: Coal supplies to power plants and other consumers are likely to be hit from Wednesday when four large central trade unions, representing almost 80% of the 3.4 lakh strong workforce at Coal India, will start non-cooperation and demonstrations at work.

This is likely to disrupt production and supply, affecting stocks at power, cement and fertiliser companies.

"Coal workers undertake a variety of jobs necessary for operating mines and supplying coal, which are beyond their designated role. Non-cooperation would involve adhering to only the defined roles in jobs and refusing to undertake any additional tasks.This would heavily affect production and sales," said S Q Zama, secretary general of Indian National Mineworkers' Federation (INMF), a union affiliated to INTUC.

Following a court case that challenged the authenticity of INTUC, the union was asked to refrain from participating in the ongoing salary negotiations committee by the High Court. Following this, the central government has asked INTUC to refrain from being part of all committees at Coal India and its subsidiaries, upsetting the union.

INMF plans to carry out non-cooperation till March 23, the next date of hearing of the court case. It is being joined by other central trade unions that would resort to noncooperation because the government plans to divest an additional 10% in the company.

According to analysts, power companies may not feel the pinch for at least a week since they have at least 15 days of average stock at their plants.

However, after the first seven days stocks would start to deplete and generation may start to fall. If generation declines, power distribution companies may have to resort to load shedding, they said.

Other sectors like cement and fertiliser may start facing stock issues after a few days. "Our non-cooperative drive would also include blockade of dispatch of coal and production process including those handled by outsourced and contractual agencies," said Zama of INMF.

(Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/)