85,000 SAIL employees to get pay hike; steel minister Narendra Singh Tomar gives nod to pay revision

Narendra Singh Tomar with junior minister Vishnu Deo Sai

LESS than a month of Narendra Modi taking over as the new prime minister, the pending issue of pay revision for the non-executive employees of the steel major Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) has been resolved. The wage hike issue in the steel major, due every five years, was...
pending since January, 2012 due to differences on the extent of hike between the management and its unions' umbrella body National Joint Committee for Steel (NJCS).
New steel minister Narendra Singh Tomar has okayed a 17- percent hike in basic and dearness allowances (DA) and six percent rise in perks for the company's non-executive employees.
After long negotiations with unions, SAIL had agreed to the wage revision, incurring an additional burden of around Rs 1,000 crore annually.
Following the ministry's nod, SAIL would now sign a new pact with the employees and within a month of that the revision would be implemented.
To begin with, union representatives involved in the wage revision talks were demanding a 21.6 percent hike, similar to the rise in 2007, in basic and dearness allowances.
The management said in the current market condition for steel in which consumption grew by just 0.6 percent in the 2013-14, a repeat of 2007 is not possible. Since the revision has been pending for nearly two-and-a half month now, the immediate burden will be over Rs 2,300 crore.
The Maharatna PSU has already made the required provisions for paying out majority of the arrears.