- Steel PSUs geared up for special time bound recruitment drive for SCs & STs
- Package for increasing earnings of Contract labourers in Steel PSUs in pipeline.
A Press Conference was addressed by Shri Ram Vila Paswan, HonÔÇÖble Minister of Chemicals & Fertlisers and Steel on 22nd August 2008. HonÔÇÖble Minister mentioned that in an era of liberalised economy, if PSUs are expected to perform better, then it is imperative to provide them a level playing field vis-├á-vis their counterparts in the private sector. However, while comparing the working of PSUs and private sector, a key differentiation is that the PSUs have to carry out a number of social obligations. Thus while moving towards the goal of becoming a profit-making enterprise, the PSUs also have to fulfill the responsibility of promoting social objectives such as generating guaranteed employment, providing housing and education of the children of its employees, job reservation for socially disadvantaged communities, taking industries to backward areas and providing output at `reasonable' prices to people.
Shri Paswan also dwelt on the importance of providing welfare measures to the employees and contractual workers in the PSUs which on one hand promote a harmonious and healthy work environment, creates efficient, healthy, loyal and a satisfied labor force for the organization and on the other makes their work life better and also raises the intellectual, cultural and material conditions of living of the workers.
HonÔÇÖble Minister deliberated on the outcome of a key review meeting undertaken in the Ministry on 21st August 2008 to assess the welfare measures being undertaken by the Public Sector Undertakings under the Ministry of Steel, in which the CEOs of all the PSUs under the Ministry of Steel (SAIL, RINL, NMDC, MOIL, KIOCL, MECON, MSTC, FSNL, SIIL, HSCL, BRL) & the Bird Group of companies and their key officers were present. The review meeting had assessed the progress on three key frontiers:-
- The position of earmarking specific percentage of jobs for SC/ST where the Public Sector Undertakings too are bound by the reservation policy of the Government:The overall position of deployment of SC and ST candidates in the PSUs as also the position of SC and ST candidates in the inpidual categories of Group A, B , C and D were specifically analyzed in respect of each of the PSUs and explicit reasons for the shortfalls noticed in the case of some of the PSUs were taken note of.
- Welfare measures for the employees: It was revealed during the assessment that the Steel
SC/ST shortfall to be redressed: While each of the respective CMDs of the PSUs made commitments to redress the shortfalls in having the desired percentage of SC and ST candidates in position, a decision was taken that all the profit making PSUs which included SAIL, NMDC, RINL, MOIL and MSTC would chalk out time bound ÔÇ£special recruitment drivesÔÇØ for SC/ST candidates to fill up the vacancy positions within the next two months. For this purpose, advertisements would be taken out in Employment News and other established channels of recruitment within the next 15 days.
It was decided that the Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Steel would monitor the implementation of the commitment given by the PSUs and the position would be reviewed at the level of the Minister after one month.
- PSUs were largely compliant with the statutory welfare measures like providing canteens, first aid appliances, drinking water facilities, shelters, restrooms and lunch rooms etc., besides having schemes for providing gratuity, provident Fund, Pension as per employees Pension Scheme, Workmen Compensation.
- In line with the commitment of the Government to take care of the welfare of the employees, the Government has recently approved the merger of 50% DA with basic pay for all the regular employees of SAIL, who number around 1,26,000.
- The Government has already approved payment of increment to all the regular employees of SAIL and RINL at the rate of 4% of their basic pay.
- Some other notable examples of employee welfare measures include:
Employees Family Benefit Scheme of SAIL under which in case of death of an employee/permanent medical unfitness while in service, an amount equivalent to the last drawn Basic and DA is provided to the family till his/her notional date of retirement on fulfillment of conditions laid down in the scheme. At present around 4000 families are availing benefits under this scheme. Presently, SAIL is providing a subsidy of Rs. 20 crores per year (approx) for operation of this scheme.
NMDC is providingsubsidized electricity @ 25 paise per unit upto a specified ceiling for employees posted in the Projects and occupying company accommodation. Rs. 5000/- p.m. is being paid as incentive for front line operators who contribute directly in production. Some of the front line operators have got incentive as high as Rs. 10,000/- pm based on their output. Every employee of NMDC and CISF personnel working in Bailadila Complex is insured for an amount of Rs 6 lakh each as a measure of relief to them/ their dependants in the event of any unfortunate happening.This amount is in addition to other insurance covers applicable.
Coverage of all the employees in MOIL under the Janta Personal Accident Policy for Rs.1 lakh, the premium of all the regular employees covered under this scheme is being paid by the Company. The employees who are working in EMD/ Ferro Plant, underground mines of MOIL are being paid special allowance @ 5% of their Basic pay. Production Incentive is being paid to the employees @ Rs. 6000/-on achieving highest production and Rs. 14000/- incentive during Diwali every year for those employees who are not covered under the provision of Bonus Act.
LPG outlet is provided by SIIL in its campus to facilitate the employees as well as the people residing around the township.
KIOCL provides Computers at token price to SC/ST employees,
Welfare measures for Contract Labour: A large number of contractorÔÇÖs labourers are engaged in the Steel PSUs particularly in majors-SAIL and RINL. Some of these workforce man jobs of a perennial nature like cleaning, loading and unloading jobs and handling work at stockyards. Other jobs are of a periodic nature, particularly those engaged for time bound projects.
During the review meting on 21st August 2008, it was revealed that by and large the steel PSUs are complying with the provisions of Workmen Compensation Act, Provident Fund Act/Pension Scheme, Minimum Wages Act and other statutory Acts laid down for the social security and protection of contractorÔÇÖs labourers. A few notable features of welfare measures in vogue in some of the PSUs include:
Extra benefits paid by RINL to the ContractorÔÇÖs Labour includes -
- adhoc amount of Rs.300/- per month for those working with the contractors in existing plant area;
- allowances like Heat allowance, Dust allowance, Tea allowance etc.
- Ex-gratia of Rs.1,00,000/- (Rupees One lakh only) in case of fatal accidents which are in addition to the
- payment of statutory minimum wages
In NMDC each contractorÔÇÖs labour is given a coupon worth Rs. 10/- through the Contractor for each day of
actual attendance which can be exchanged for purchase of items like rice, dal, etc from Co-operative Stores functioning in the projects. This is in addition to the wages paid to them.
In some of the SAIL Plants, payment to ContractorÔÇÖs labour is being arranged directly through Banks.
For this purpose, SAIL has facilitated opening of Bank accounts for the ContractorÔÇÖs labour by bearing the initial
cost of opening the accounts.
The HonÔÇÖble Steel Minister said that this practice should be replicated in the other
Plants of SAIL as also the PSUs under the Ministry of Steel.
Proposal for increasing monthly earnings of contractorÔÇÖs labourers: During the meeting, it emerged that there was high disparity in the levels of the monthly earnings by the contractorÔÇÖs labourers vis-a vis the corresponding pay of regular employees of the PSUs performing similar nature of work. Particularly for those contractorÔÇÖs labourers who had been engaged for a significant number of years, the difference stood out in stark comparison. As a first step towards addressing this anomaly, it was decided in the meeting to work out the feasibility of having a raise in the monthly earnings of the contractorÔÇÖs labourers in all the Steel PSUs by an amount of around Rs. 1000/- per month. A high level committee comprising of the Additional Secretary & FA in the Ministry of Steel, Chairman SAIL and the CMDs of NMDC, RINL, KIOCL and MOIL would be constituted shortly to work out the modalities and if feasible the scheme is to be implemented within the end of September 2008.