The prickly issue of labour unrest within the ranks of Coal India ltd (CIl) workforce has led the Government to delay taking any conclusive decision towards divesting its stake in the Maharatna company.
A meeting between Coal Ministry and CIl workers' unions to resolve the disinvestment issue remained inconclusive on Tuesday even as Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal said there is no scope for any labour unrest.
The minister said that another meeting would take place on July 30 where a possibility of arriving at a definitive decision on CIl's disinvestment looks bright and a decision keeping in mind the interests of the workers would be taken.
CIl employees are threatening to go on strike in case the Government goes ahead with 10 per cent stake sale in the PSU major.
“There is no scope for any labour unrest or strike,” Jaiswal said after meeting the representatives of Coal India trade unions.
He added that “there is no need for me to tell what issues were raised by them (trade unions) and what issues were raised by us (Coal Ministry). Today, the meeting (between the Coal Ministry and Coal India trade unions) was held in a cordial atmosphere. The discussions are going ahead with regard to Coal India disinvestment”.
Terming the meeting as inconclusive, a trade union representative said around 3.6 lakh employees of CIl are opposing the stake sale in the PSU firm.