Wages and Wage Boards in Coal Industry – A brief Citation

By -

The erstwhile Govt of Hyderabad through its Labour Department Notification dated: 23-07-1949 approved some of the recommendations submitted by the Coal Mines Enquiry Committee, appointed in 1948 under the chairmanship of Jadhav, RLC(C). The scales of pay and service conditions as approved by the Govt of Hyderabad were implemented in the Singareni Collieries Copany from 1st July, 1949.
            All the above committees were set up on Region-wise basis. In 1954, the Govt of India with a view to bring about uniformity in wage structure and other service conditions in the mining industry as far as possible, constituted the All India Industrial Tribunal with J.N.Mazumdar as its Chairman. The Award is popularly known as the “Coal Award” or “Mazumdar Award”. This award was implemented in the Singareni mines from May 26, 1956. This was for the first time in the industry when the Coal Award introduced uniform wage structure for the entire country except Assam.
            Subsequntly, some appeals were filed by different parties against the Coal Award before the Labour Appellate Tribunal (LAT) of India. The LAT gave its decision on 29-01-1957 with certain improvements in the rates and the scales of pay, VDA etc. These decisions were implemented w.e.f. May 26, 1956 in the Singareni Mines.
            Still some differences persisted between the management and labour in the coal industry. An agreement entered into by an organization of the employers and the three federations of unions by which 31 demands were referred to the Arbitration of A.Das Gupta. He gave his award on December 30, 1959 and it is popularly known as the “Das Gupta Award”. Although, the Das Gupta Award was not applied to the collieries in Andhra Pradesh, the Singareni Collieries Company adopted the time scales and some other benefits to its daily rated workers, and came into an agreement with recognized Trade Unions to this effect. The main cause behind this type of voluntary adoption of this Award was the attractive rise in the coal price allowed under the said Awards.
            The wages were further revised and improved based on the recommendations of Coal Wage Board appointed by the Govt of India in the year 1962. The recommendations were implemented from 15-08-1967 in Singareni.
            The workmen and trade unions again agitated for further increase in the wages and other service conditions. The Joint Bi-Partite Wage Negotiating Committee for the Coal Industry was formed by the Govt of India on 14-08-1973 to study and review the above problems. The first meeting of the said committee held on 24-09-1973 which was inaugurated by the then Minister of Power & Steel Sri T.B.Pai. The final draft was signed on 11-12-1974 and consequently, the committee arrived at the National Coal Wage Agreement (NCWA-I and NCWA-II) which were implemented with effect from 01-01-1975 and 01-01-1979 respectively.
            Before the Coal Wage Board recommendations were adopted, time rated workers in coal industry were placed in 9 different categories. Depending upon the job description and nomenclature evolved by the ‘Mazumdar Award’. These 9 categories were compressed into six by the Coal Wage Board and the same categorization continued under the NCWA-I, II and III. The workmen were thus categorized as follows:
1.      Unskilled                               Category-I
2.      Semi-skilled(Lower)             Category-II
3.      Semi-skilled(Higher)            Category-III
4.      Skilled(Junior)                      Category-IV
5.      Skilled(Senior)                      Category-V

6.      Highly Skilled                       Category-VI

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

MCQ Practice Session - 5

By -
1.          NCWA stands for: a)      National Coal Wage Arrangement b)      National Coal Wage Agreement c)      National Coal Washery Association d)      Not known 2.         Effective period of which NCWA was of 4 and ½ years: a)      NCWA-III           b) NCWA-IV                 c)  NCWA-V 3.         The percentage of Minimum Guaranteed Benefit in NCWA-IX is: a)      24%                    b)  25%                   ...
Read more

History of SLU/SLP/SLI & SLW in CIL

By -
History of SLU/SLP/SLI & SLW in CIL The provision of upgradation to the next higher grade/category in respect of non-executive employees who remained in the same grade/category for more than 10 years was first introduced in the operation period of NCWA-IV and was brought in effect from 01-07-1989 which continued progressively on 01-07-1990, 01-07-1991 and so on. The said provision was made effective vide Implementation Instruction No-3 of NCWA-IV. In the subsequent NCWA as well, the above provision was continued to be in operation vide clause-2.11.0 of NCWA-V with effect from 01-07-1994 and thereafter on 01-07-1995. It was also agreed that if any reduction in the period of 10 years for the purpose of upgradation is mutually decided at later stage of time, the same would be effective from 01-01-1996. In the subsequent NCWA i.e. NCWA-VI (01-07-1996 to 30-06-2000), the period of 10 years was reduced to 7/8 years in UG/Surface respectively and the same was termed as SLU (Service ...
Read more

MCQ Practice Session-8

By -
1.      Which of the following equipments are chain mounted? a) Side Discharge Loader b) Load Haul Dunper c) Both d) None 2.      Which of the following is a mass production technology for UG? a) SDL b) LHD c) PSLW (Power Support Long wall) d) None 3.      In which OCP, In-pit-crushing and conveying system is used for? a) Gevra Mine b) Dipka Mine c) Piparwar d) Jagannath 4.      SDL & LHD in UG are used for…………… a) Transporting b) Loading c) Cutting d) Drilling 5.      What are the characteristics of imported coal? a) Low ash & moisture b) High Sulphur c) Both a) & b) d) None 6.      Under New Coal Distribution Policy(NCDP), Coal is sold by CIL through……… a) Fuel Supply Agreement(FSA) b) Memorandum of Understanding(MOU) c) E-auction d) All of the above 7.      Which of the fol...
Read more