Coal news and updates

Coal India may stop hiring women

Coal India, the world's biggest coal miner, may stop employing women under compassionate grounds as most of them are illiterate and cannot be deployed for mining purposes. The state-owned company is instead planning to give a lump sum money of Rs36,000 every month to the family of the worker who dies at the mines.
"We are in discussions with the unions to implement this scheme in lieu of the existing one because we are looking at reducing the number of female workforce in the company because they cannot be sent to mines or remote locations for coal explorations," a senior CILBSE -1.41 % official said on condition of anonymity.

Accidents at CIL mines are common and until now CIL has been following the system of offering job to one member of the family, in case the employee dies. The practice of employing women, whose husbands have died, in the company is a practice followed since 1974.

Women employed on compassionate grounds, who number about 26,000, cannot be gainfully employed by the company because the Indian Mines Act does not allow them to be sent to underground mines, according to CIL officials. Neither can they be made to work in opencast mines after dark. This has forced CIL to make them do the jobs of general mazdoors, peons, sweepers and paramedical staff, after they are offered a job at the company.

This segment is surplus at the moment and we have offered a voluntary retirement scheme for them. Now we would like to stop recruiting any more women on compassionate grounds in the future and are in discussions with the unions," said a senior CIL official.

"CIL, however, open to a male member of the family being offered a job provided he qualifies and is of legal age to work. Not all family have a male member eligible to work and the large number of woman employees has been formed mostly because of this," he said. The company is working out a package which would be offered in lieu of the jobs to the female in case there are no male members in the family.

"We plan to offer a monthly contribution of Rs16,000 each month to the family member till the time the employee was to reach 60 years," he said.

Source: The Economic Times