Coal India employee unions defer proposed strike on November 24

The proposed strike on November 24 by Coal India (CIL) employee unions has been deferred after a meeting between Coal Ministry officials and trade unions on Saturday.

"After a meeting with the joint secretary of Coal Ministry and coal trade unions, we have agreed to defer the proposed strike," INTUC leader S Q Zama said.

Four trade unions affiliated to INTUC, HMS, CITU and AITUC had served a notice for one-day token strike on November 24 in the coal sector. They were demanding scrapping of the enabling clause from the Coal Mines Ordinance-2014, which allows commercial mining by private firms and divestment of at least 10 per cent stake in Coal India, among others.

The Bhartiya Majdoor Sangh (BMS) had earlier said it would not be a part of the proposed strike.

Coal India had said that the impact of the the proposed day-long strike would not be "alarming".

CIL's average production is about 1.5 million tonnes a day. It missed the output target for the fifth consecutive month of the current fiscal producing 34.88 million tonnes of coal in September, against the targeted 36.17 million tonnes.