In providing some relief to about 13,650 of its employees, the management of Singareni Collieries Company Ltd (SCCL) has modified its decision of paying only half of the salary this month so that they could get a minimum of ₹15,000 take-home amount.
According to the company officials, the SCCL management has decided to pay only half the salary to its employees this month (for March) following a decision made by the State government to prune the expenditure in the wake of coronavirus epidemic impacting the earnings/revenue, including in the State pubic sector undertakings. However, the decision would end up in about 13,650 of the company employees getting less than ₹15,000 take-home salary after 50% deduction.
The company management has already issued a circular postponing the deductions in lieu of the festival advance and cooperative loans taken by the employees as also the recoveries by clubs in view of the 50% salary deferment decision. The officials said of the 43,000 employees under the National Coal Wage Agreement about 27,000 would get more than ₹15,000 take home salary even after the 50% salary deferment.
Of the remaining employees, about 12,000 would get over ₹10,000 to ₹15,000 per month and another 1,650 would get less than ₹10,000 after 50% reduction in their salary. Following a representation made by the trade unions, the company management has decided to ensure that these employees get at least ₹15,000 take home amount. Same principle would also be applied for ‘badili’ workers.
Salary to the employees would be credited into their bank account on Saturday (April 4) and the amount cut from the salary in view of the government decision would be paid to the employees once the normalcy was restored. The company is continuing coal production from all its opencast mines and mechanised sections of five underground mines to meet the needs of power stations having coal linkage from Singareni.
