On one hand while Coal India is seeing unenthusiastic demand for coal, it is also faced with difficulties with employee pay hike.
The company is seeing a new challenge which may potentially stress its margins further by raising its expenses — workers’ as well as officers’ salaries needs to be revised this year. While senior officials of the company are working out the means to arrange the extra income to fund the pay hike, reports have it that the trade unions have demanded a 50 per cent increase. Senior officials said, given the coal demand situation, the company was not in a position to yield to union and would try to negotiate a fair hike considering the market conditions.
According to some sources in the company, the pay hike this year might not be even as much as 25 per cent — the rate of increase which took place five years ago. Following the last salary revision in the year 2011, Coal India’s annual salary bill was raised by Rs 5,000 crores.
As many as 265,876 workmen, 18,213 executives along with 30,817 supervisors of the company await the hike.
Officials are worried as the average price realization from coal sales has taken a hit by six per cent, at Rs 1,344 a tonnes. Even e-auction prices, compared to the previous year, are down by 27 per cent which has led to about Rs 1,000-crores decline in income.
All these difficulties and uncertainties have been reflecting negatively on the shares of the company. Coal India share price dipped more than 1 per cent within the first 30 minutes of Monday’s trade. The share price opened at Rs 316.60 from the previous closing of Rs 317.75.
About 1,40,417 shares of the company have been traded on the counter of NSE for a total traded value of Rs 443.61 lacs.
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