Kolkata Aug 31 (IANS) The coal workers unions and management of Coal India Ltd (CIL) could not reach consensus to sign a wage agreement a union leader said on Thursday.
"The National Coal Wage Agreement-X (NCWA-X) was not signed today (Thursday) as a consensus was not reached. There are points of diferences regarding the wage on rest days and compensation to contractual workers in case of any fatal accidents " B.K. Rai representing the workers on behalf of Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh told IANS.
The year-long wage talks covering more than three lakh workers in the public sector coal industry had entered the final lap and a final accord was supposed to be signed on Thursday which is the last scheduled working day of the miner s Chairman and Managing Director Sutirtha Bhattacharyya.
The meeting between miner s management and unions ended late in the evening. The next round of talks will be held on September 18.
The unions had initially demanded a 50 per cent salary increase and settled for 20 per cent after year-long negotiations.
The five-year wage pact covers the unionised workers in the miner s subsidiaries and NCWA-IX expired on June 30 2016. In 2011 salaries were increased by 25 per cent.
--IANS
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