ROURKELA: AMID threat of agitation, the SAIL management, despite facing financial crisis, has dropped hint to pay an annual festive bonus to nearly 13,470 employees of the Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) and workers of rest of the SAIL plants.Usually, SAIL had been providing festive ex gratia before Durga Puja and in 2014, paid `18,040 to each employee of RSP. However, in 2015, SAIL had refused to pay bonus citing huge loss and under tremendous pressure, belatedly paid `9,000, while it was `10,000 in 2016. Given the experience of the past two years, various trade union bodies have mounted pressure on SAIL to finalise festive ex gratia quickly.
Rourkela Ispat Karkhana Karmachari Sangh (RIKKS) general secretary H S Bal said in the production-productivity meeting of the National Joint Committee on Steel (NJCS) on August 24, the SAIL bosses promised to finalise the festive ex gratia issue in the next NJCS meeting to be called in the first week of September. He said since loss of SAIL has reduced by 30 per cent, they expect higher ‘bonus’ amount than last year which would benefit 13,470 non-executives of RSP and total of about 70,000 non-executives of SAIL units.
However, Rourkela Shramik Sangh general secretary Prashant Behera said the INTUC demands bonus of `18,040 as production has increased. He said since bonus is calculated on production and productivity of individual plants and performance of SAIL, the public sector steel workers deserve better bonus in the wake of increased production and productivity. Behera said SAIL’s losses in the past two consecutive years were attributed to drop in Net Sales Realisations (NSR) and workers should not be punished for SAIL’s failure to sell products.
He hoped for an amicable solution in the NJCS meeting and warned that the INTUC union would not sit quiet if the legitimate demand gets ignored.All-India Steel Workers’ Federation (AISWF) national vice-president Pravat Mishra said the federation would settle for only an acceptable amount and it is calculating a suitable amount considering the present financial condition of SAIL.