Fulfilling the long-pending demands of MOIL employees, Government on Sunday announced wage revision and other benefits. In the wage revision, the company will have to give additional amount of Rs 87 crore per annum. This was announced by Ram Chandra Prasad Singh, Union Minister of Steel, in presence of Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways. The programme was organised to virtually inaugurate MOIL’s 2nd Vertical Shaft at Chikla Mine, hospitals at Chikla, Gumgaon, Dongri-Buzurg, Tirodi and Kandri mines, administrative building at Tirodi Mine and Graduate Trainee Hostel at Balaghat Mine. On Monday, the Union Minister will visit Balaghat mine, the deepest underground Manganese mine in Asia, operated by MOIL. Dr Vikas Mahatme, MP, Rajya Sabha, Sunil Kedar, Maharashtra Minister for Animal Husbandry, Dairy Development, Sports and Youth Welfare, Mukund P Chaudhari, Chairman cum Managing Director (CMD), MOIL Limited, Sukriti Likhi, Additional Secretary and Financial Advisor, Ministry of Steel (MoS) and Ruchika Govil, Joint Secretary, MoS were seated on the dais. Faggan Singh Kulaste, Union State Minister for Steel and Rural Development joined the programme on-line.

 

Ram Chandra Prasad Singh continued said that the wage revision is for duration of 10 years effective from August 1, 2017 and continue up to July 31, 2027, offering benefit close to 5,800 employees. It is based on an memorandum of understanding (MoU) inked between the management and MOIL Kamgar Sanghatan (MKS). The proposal includes fitment benefit of 20 per cent and perks/allowances at the rate of 20 per cent. An interim relief at 12 per cent of basic and DA was given by the company w.e.f May, 2019. He said, the company will make the arrears payment in one go, which will have a financial impact of Rs 218 crore approximately for the period it is due i.e. from August 1, 2017 to September 30, 2021. MOIL Limited has already made full provisions for this wage increase in the books of accounts. In addition to this, the production linked bonus for all employees at Rs 28,000 for the year 2020-21 will be paid before Diwali. Ram Chandra Prasad Singh said, MOIL is the largest producer of manganese ore in the country and operates 11 mines in the State of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. MOIL holds 34 per cent of manganese ore reserves of the country and is contributing about 45 per cent of the domestic production. The company has ambitious vision of almost doubling its production to 25 lakh MT by FY 2024-25. “Even though our country is blessed with manganese ore reserves, we import 50 per cent of the domestic requirement. We have to lower our import dependence and save precious foreign exchange.

 

The manganese ore production has to be increased to such a level that we can export excess manganese ore and earn foreign exchange.” “The Central Government is formulating the National Steel Policy which has target plan to raise the steel production from 110 million tonne (MT) to 300 MT. To meet this target, MOIL needs to align its production to meet the future requirements of the steel industry. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has ambitious plan to lower imports by increasing domestic production under the ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ initiative,” he added. Nitin Gadkari said that MOIL has to create a roadmap and plan how to increase its production to meet domestic consumption. He said, the management and workers have to join together to increase the production and ensure that the company makes more profits. Disclosing some of his plans, he said, “We want to replace coking coal with green hydrogen which is electricity generated from renewable energy and hydrogen to save the environment. This is was very important for safeguarding the ecology.” Mukund P Chaudhari, CMD of MOIL Limited said, the company is focusing on increasing production in all its open and underground mines. MOIL is targeting to produce manganese ore of 25 MT by 2025 and 20 MT by 2030.

 

The company has 11 mines with 7 underground and 4 open mines. About 60 per cent production is from underground mines. Most of the mines are more than 100 years old and these mines require new facilities to keep them operating. Therefore the company has built the 2nd vertical shaft, hospitals, Graduate Training Hostel and new administrative building at various locations. Earlier, Sunil Kedar said that the MOIL management and HR Department were not sensitive to workers problems. Regarding the wage revision and bonus the MoUs were signed several years ago but the approvals were not given on time. Other than this, a worker suffering from cancer died even though he had approached the HR officials at MOIL to provide aid for medical expenses and medicines. Eventually he died and his four children are begging on the streets to meet ends. He requested the dignitaries to look into this matter and give compensation to the poor family members. In the programme, a large number workers, employees, union leaders and others were present. 

 

 

 

 

Ram Chandra Prasad Singh, Union Minister of Steel, said that the MOIL is evaluating mining properties in the country to raise production of manganese ore and lower imports. For this, MOIL is exploring business opportunity in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Odisha and other countries. The Minister who was addressing a press conference on Sunday said, underground mine development is a complex process and requires planning, huge investment and new technology. Similarly, the open cast mines also have issues as the well gets deeper, the production suffers. Apart from this, opening new mines requires policy planning and rehabilitation of local people, environment clearances and profit sharing module the PAP require etc.

 

Asked about the Scrappage Policy, the Union Minister said that it will benefit in the long run. It will create more employment and open up new business opportunities. Mukund P Chaudhari, Chairman cum Managing Director (CMD), MOIL Limited said that the company is not planning to go for initial public offering to meet expansion plans as it has adequate reserves. He further said that the company will investigate the issue regarding death of a worker due to cancer, as he was not given any medical expenses by the Human Resource (HR) Department of MOIL. His family including four children had not received any compensation as reported by Sunil Kedar, Minister for Animal Husbandry, Dairy Development, Sports and Youth Welfare.