Coal news and updates

CIL mulls major manpower revamp to improve efficiency, cut costs

Coal India Ltd (CIL) is planning a major restructuring of its manpower across subsidiaries to improve efficiency and reduce costs.

The company, criticised for overstaffing with over 3.4 lakh employees, has decided to optimise manpower utilisation by eliminating unproductive jobs, overlapping roles and non-value adding activities and processes, a senior official said.

The official, however, ruled out retrenchments. "We have felt the need to rejig the manpower to improve productivity. Often, we have realised that some work areas are overstaffed than required while some are understaffed," he told ET on the condition of anonymity.

A senior coal ministry official said Coal India has been asked to refrain from giving jobs in lieu of land to project affected people.

"High manpower in Coal India is because of its liberal rehabilitation policies and is a concern. During his recent visit to Kolkata, coal minister Piyush Goyal advised the company to offer financial package to oustees rather than offering them jobs in coal subsidiaries,"the official said.

CIL will engage a human resource development consultancy firm to suggest the overhaul and has issued a tender for the same.

The selected consultant will prepare a report on the present manpower status of the company vis-avis its key business processes and suggest ways to optimise manpower through identifying role overlaps, non-value adding activities and rationalistaion of cadres. The scope of the contract includes identifying surplus manpower, redeployment and imparting necessary training.

Source: The Economic Times