Bhilai, Nov 25: Stretched discussions were held on various issues related to the executives of various units of SAIL during a meeting of the Steel Executives Federation of India (SEFI) with the officials of SAIL management held recently in New Delhi. SEFI delegates put forth their problems and demands in a strong manner during this meeting. SAIL Chairman Anil Kumar Chaudhary, Director (Personnel) Atul Srivastava and other senior officials were present in the meeting.
SEFI office bearers Narendra Kumar Banchor (President); Bimal Kumar Bisi (General Secretary); Himmat Singh Asolia (Vice President); Subhashish Sengupta (Vice President); Chanchal Singh (Deputy General Secretary); C Sudhakar (Treasurer) and former office bearer KP Bakshi Prasad were present.
SEFI delegates strongly pressed the demand to forward the roadmap of pension scheme immediately to the Steel Ministry. SAIL officials assured that the roadmap will be presented before the Steel Ministry on November 26. It needs to be mentioned here that a provision of Rs 500 crore has been made in the FY 2018-19 for paying arrears to the executives those who retired during January 01, 2007 to March 31, 2016. This proposal is being sent to the steel ministry for approval. In the same manner, provision of Rs 500 crore will be made in the FY 2019-20 for the executives those who will retire till March 31, 2020.
When the SEFI delegates enquired about the third pay revision which is pending since January 01, 2017, the SAIL officials replied that the pay revision issue will be taken into consideration after completion of current financial year on the basis of DPE guidelines.
SEFI had raised the demand of bringing uniformity in the holiday policy across all units of SAIL. SEFI requested the SAIL Officials to resolve this issue and implement a uniform policy with effect from January 01, 2019. At present, three types of leaves are provided to the executives at every unit. The executives posted in Works Area get leave of nine days; executives posted in non-works area get leave of 21 days while the executives posted in SAIL CMO, SET, RDCIS and other offices get leave of 45 days. The disparity in leaves has triggered resentment among the executives and therefore SEFI is demanding to implement a uniform policy.
SEFI further reiterated the demand of CPF deduction on the arrears of pay-anomaly of the Junior Officers of 2008 – 2010 batches. SAIL Management accepted this demand and assured to issue order in this regard in the first week of December. Discussions were held on disinvestment of ASP, VISL and SSP. SEFI demanded to prevent the disinvestment of these units. They further demanded to provide relief to the officials those who have been suspended from services at Bhilai Steel Plant and Bokaro Steel Plant.
SEFI further demanded to provide 30% mining allowance to the executives posted in the mines area. Referring to the DPE guidelines, SAIL Management assured to seek guidance from DPE regarding this issue. SEFI registered its objection on increasing the period of DGM to GM promotions to four years.
They demanded to revise the promotion policy, include E-1 to E-4 grade executives in same cluster; etc. SAIL management replied that they are going to constitute a committee for assessing these demands. This committee would submit its recommendations within three months. SEFI further requested to introduce re-designation of the executives and received assurance of tabling the issue in the SAIL Board’s Sub Committee Meeting. SEFI further demanded to re-introduce the EL Encashment Scheme at its earliest.
In all 885 workmen were promoted to Junior Officers recently. SEFI demanded to take steps for avoiding pay anomaly. The issues regarding dress code, uniform transfer policy; furnishing allowance, HRA, qualitative change in medical facilities and other issues were also discussed during the meeting.