Govt paving way for CIL sell-off?

The Coal India workers' demands merit more than bland assurances

The five-day strike of Coal India Ltd (CIL) workers called by five major central trade unions was called off at the end of the second day with the setting up of a joint committee. The government assured the workers that it had no plans to denationalise CIL which has approximately 3,52,282 employees. Significantly, the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, the labour wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, has been in the forefront of the strike and has also opposed legislation to denationalise coal blocks, pointing out that “canards” are being spread about the inefficiency of the public sector coal workers in order to hand over CIL to private interests.

Among their demands were deleting the clause allowing private commercial coal mining in the Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Bill, 2014, allocating coal blocks to CIL, bringing production planning and its execution under the scrutiny of the industrial relations system, ending contractual jobs in posts of a perennial nature and regularisation of all those who are presently on contracts, lifting the ban on recruitment and ironing out the problems in the Special Female Voluntary Retirement Scheme which the unions had earlier succeeded in reinstating.

The All India Coal Workers Federation (affiliated to the CITU) pointed out that taken together the provision for private commercial mining, the indiscriminate allotment of coal blocks beyond areas identified by the Supreme Court, permitting contractors to prospect and the silence on workers’ social security in the new system all indicate that the government is “importing slavery”. It has also protested the coal ministry’s plans for replacing the institutional regulating system by a private individual, including the posting of corporate/multinational nominee at the helm of CIL.

It is ironical that workers are now being forced to agitate to oppose disinvestment and denationalisation of an industry that was nationalised in 1973 because of shortcomings in the way it was run by private parties. At that time the reasons for nationalisation were to ensure smooth investment and uninterrupted supply of coal for the growing demand, to prevent rapid depletion of natural resources by well-planned extraction and to ensure the safety and well-being of the workers.

Those demanding the industry’s privatisation (ably assisted by a section of the mainstream media) ignore issues which need urgent attention like the reconstruction and reorganising of old mines, the theft of coal and illegal mining, the need for updated technology, a precise evaluation of coal reserves and the need for proper environmental initiatives, particularly around open cast mining. The unions have succeeded in ensuring a certain standard of wages and benefits to CIL workers. Given past experience with privatisation, they are apprehensive that private parties will employ labour at low wages with poor social security. Not only will this mean a rollback of benefits for workers, it will also enable these private players to sell coal cheaper and thus make CIL unviable.

In the wake of the 24 September 2014 order of the Supreme Court that cancelled the allocation of 214 coal blocks to private companies, the government promulgated the coal ordinance on 20 October for opening up the coal sector. It was also seen as a pathway to permitting commercial mining in the future (currently it is meant only for companies with direct end-use for coal). Earlier the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, which had decided on 10% disinvestment in CIL, backtracked following strike threats, and proposed 5% instead. The trajectory of the present government has been clear; it is looking for ways to move much further than the UPA in privatising coal mines, whether through a divestment in CIL or through allowing commercial mining by private parties. It has also shown itself to be keen to whittle down whatever few benefits and protections workers have under present laws. The government has reached a tentative agreement. Both sides know that this is merely a ceasefire and not an end to the war that the present government has launched on workers across sectors.