The Hindu : Singareni talks inconclusive

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Feb 03, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Andhra Pradesh

Singareni talks inconclusive

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD FEB. 2. The impasse over the ongoing strike in the Singareni Collieries Company Limited has finally ended with the management resuming talks with leaders of the striking workers unions. The talks which commenced in the presence of the Regional Labour Commissioner, however, remained inconclusive as both the management and the unions stuck to their stand on the deployment of surface miner on a contract basis.

While the management ruled out the complete withdrawal of the surface miner and expressed willingness to continue negotiations on the other demands, the workers unions insisted that the management concede their demand for a total withdrawal of the surface miner. After more than two hours of discussions, the management is learnt to have climbed down by assuring that it was ready to negotiate with the workers on the time set for the contract. The company has already promised to reduce the contract time from the agreed 21 months to 10 months. With the management relaxing its stand, the workers unions sought time from the management to discuss the issue among themselves before announcing their decision on the continuation of talks. The talks which went on till night also focussed on the alleged harassment of workers and their leaders by the police. Another controversial issue that came up during the discussion was the penal wage cut imposed on the workers at Bhupalapalli mines wherein the company cut two days of salary for one day participation in the strike.

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