Resenting repeated holdups, Steel Employees’ Trade Union (SETU), an affiliated body of CITU, on Friday urged the Steel Authority of India limited (SAIl) authorities to ensure a respectable wage agreement in the coming National Joint Committee for Steel (NJCS)) meeting scheduled for January 20. Addressing a Press conference here, the SETU president and the CITU State secretary informed that over one lakh SAIl workers have suffered huge monetary losses as the agreement has already been delayed for over 25 months.
“It is intolerable. The management should be lenient to fulfil our demands as soon as possible,” said CITU State secretary Bishnu Mohanty. While the NJCS members demand minimum guarantee benefit (MGB) of 17.5 per cent and eight per cent perks, the SAIl authorities have remained firm at 16 per cent MGB and five per cent perks, Mohanty informed. Mohanty further alleged that while, on the one hand, the management is delaying the process for the agreement, on the other hand, some labour leaders having nexus with the management are agreeing to curtail certain safety measures, causing problems to reach an agreement.
Besides regular workers, nearly one lakh contractual workers
working in SAIl’s different units have also been suffering in the absence of a wage agreement, Mohanty said. Among others, CITU leaders Banamali Dhupal, Biman Maity, Basanta Nayak and Rajkishore Pradhan were present.