Date | June 15, 2017:
It is not just Coal India which is planning a global foray by means of acquiring coal assets abroad with listing on the London bourse to attract investment in the cards. Its trade unions too are now keen on a global exposure which they think will help them adjust to the changing business dynamics.
As part of an international exposure, Coal India's largest trade union, Indian National Mineworkers' Federation (INMF), which commands an above 40 per cent membership from the workers, is attending the Industrial Global Union (IGU) conference in Geneva, where it hopes to improvise its organisational capabilities by interacting with global trade union leaders as well as come up with a sustainable industrial policy for the coal workers.
The five key objectives which this conference will take up involves building a strong union for the mineworkers, both at the national as well as global levels, defending workers' rights in the fast changing mining scenario and confronting global capital, besides other issues.
"Mechanisation of the mines and digitisation of the company as well as the coal sector has now become imminent. Under a scenario when Coal India is thinking of a global presence, we (trade unions) also need to think on similar lines and adapt ourselves with the dynamism", SQ Zama, secretary general of INMF told Business Standard before leaving for Geneva.
According to Zama, Coal India's initial talks with officials from the London Stock Exchange is an indication of the company's intent to raise foreign funds and make its presence felt across Western Europe. Also, the company's other central trade unions (CTUs) like All India Coal Workers Federation, Indian Mine Workers' Federation (IMWF) and others view the company's move to acquire coal assets abroad as intent of imbibing increased mechanisation of the mines in the country.
"We are not against mechanisation as we understand that it is needed to raise productivity. But we need to take into consideration the changing energy scenario as well which is moving towards renewable energy sources and need to understand the future of coal mining", Ramendra Kumar, general secretary of IMWF said.
In course of the trade union congress in Geneva, INMF will be interacting with trade union leaders from 140 countries not just to discuss industry issues and the way forward but hopes to implement some of the takeaways from the Geneva conference in Coal India.
"The conference will analyse the transformation in digitisation and advance technologies and draw up a comprehensive role of the trade unions for future modern societies in light of structural diversities", Zama said.
While the CTUs have called for a strike from June 19-21 to protest the Centre's proposal to merge the Coal Mines Provident Fund (CMPF) with Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and the delay in revising wages of around five lakh coal workers, a major contention point of the trade unions is over increase in outsourced staff in the company.
During 1975, the year Coal India was born following nationalisation of coal mines, the company had 6,50,000 staff on its payroll, which fell to 3,33,000 in 2014 and further to 3,26,000 following retirement and voluntary schemes.
According to the CTUs, as high as 52 per cent of the 492 mt coal mined during 2014-15 was carried out by contractual workers while this ratio is poised to increase to atleast 55 per cent in the ongoing fiscal year.
"Contractual employees accounted for nearly 40 per cent of the total production just five years back. It has now risen to over 55 per cent and will increase in the days ahead", Rajendra Prasad Singha, general secretary of Hind Khadan Mazdoor Federation said.
Earlier, during the accident in the Rajmahal Open Cast Expansion Project in Jharkhand, which claimed over 18 lives, CTUs have blamed outsourcing for being the cause of the accident as workers' safety was overlooked by the contractor's — a claim vetted by the Directorate General of Mines Safety during its initial investigations.
(Source: http://www.business-standard.com/)