Singaneri Collieries’ unions to go on strike from Thursday

Hyderabad, June 14

Various trade unions of Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) have decided to go on strike from Thursday after talks between them and the management failed over their demand for revival of a scheme.

The workers are demanding the revival of the dependent employment scheme (DES), as promised by the TRS government during elections.

A division bench of the Hyderabad High Court had in March set aside the scheme in the SCCL providing employment on compassionate grounds to dependent persons of medically infirm employees by allowing the latter to take voluntary retirement.

CITU Telangana state secretary B Madhu alleged that the state government failed to present its case on DES in the high court.

“They (the government) did not undertake due exercise before issuing the GO on DES. That is the reason it was struck down by the court,” Madhu said.

“So far we held five rounds of discussions with the management. We (the unions) offered a way to the management on implementing the scheme without deviating from the law. But they did not listen,” he said.

The talks with the unions were held on Tuesday, in the presence of regional labour commissioner, without any breakthrough, Madhu said.

The national trade unions like AITUC, INTUC, CITU, HMS and BMS have decided to go on an indefinite strike from Thursday.

However, according to a senior SCCL official, the main recognised union Telangana Boggu Gani Karmika Sangam (TBGKS), which represents nearly 70 per cent of the 56,000 permanent workforce of the PSU, is not participating in the strike and hence there may not be much impact on production.

“We produce about 1.6 to 1.7 lakh tonnes of coal every day. We expect that about 25 per cent of the workforce may participate in the strike. There may be some impact on the production. But it may not be significant,” the official told PTI. PTI