ROURKELA: At a time when SAIL is being hailed for supplying Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) from Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) to fulfil the needs of the entire country, trade unions of RSP are not a happy lot. They have accused the management of being insensitive towards its workers.
The accusation comes in the backdrop of 36 RSP employees having succumbed to Covid-19 and over 1,400 infected in a short span of time. Although SAIL is a profit-making organization, its dilly-dallying attitude towards wage revision and not treating Covid deaths as ‘death on duty’ has drawn resentment from various quarters as that deprives kin of victims of possible employment on compassionate grounds.
Protesting this, four central trade unions including BMS, CITU, AICTU and HMS along with many smaller ones had called for a 24-hour strike in the first week of May but called it off apprehending disruption of LMO supply at this critical juncture as well as spread of infection due to large congregation.
President of BMS-affiliated Rourkela Ispat Karkhana Karmachari Sangh (RIKKS), the recognized trade union of RSP, HS Bal said SAIL has time and again sidelined the hard work and sacrifices of its employees who are putting in their best for the organisation.
Notably, nine RSP employees had died of Covid-19 in the first wave while 36 including three officers have succumbed in the second wave. Bal further said as per the unaudited account, SAIL in 2020-21 has earned Profit Before Tax (PBT) of about Rs 6,000 crore including Rs 2,100 crore from RSP, while in April 2021, the company made PBT of above Rs 1,000 crore with RSP’s contribution being above Rs 400 crore.
If the present trend continues, RSP will be making a profit of above Rs 4,000 crore every month by end of 2021-22 financial year.
“While the country’s economy is going southward, SAIL is riding high on multiple factors including high Net Sales Realization (NSR), restrictions on import of Chinese steel and low cost of Australian coal exceptionally profiting,” added Bal.
It is most unfortunate that workers’ wage revision, which is done every five years, is lingering since January 2017 and eight meetings of National Joint Committee on Steel remained inconclusive with SAIL putting its foot down with low Minimum Guaranteed Benefit offer. SAIL executives’ pay revision done in 10 years is also pending since the same time.