Coal India executives call off strike

KOLKATA: The Coal Mines’ Officers Association of India has deferred the three-day strike after they got indications from the Coal India management that the government has recommended their demand for implementation of variable pay favourably.

"Following a meeting between the CIL management and the Officers Association, which started around 9.30 PM on Thursday and went on for five hours till 2.30 AM on Friday, the Association decided on deferring the strike because the government has taken up their case favourably. In fact, the committee of secretaries in a meeting on Wednesday recommended implementation of the variable pay for all officers. This was conveyed to the Association and they decided on deferring the strike," said director personal R Mohandas.

Nevertheless, CIL lost about 30 lakh tonnes of production on Thursday as the officers were on strike. It managed to produce around 1.4 million tonnes against the average production of 1.7 million tonnes on other days during this time. Despatches were around 1.4 million tonnes during the sat.

The Association had submitted a three-day strike notice from March 13. This prompted the management to postpone its board meeting scheduled on the same day to 20th March.