Hyderabad: Ahead of the elections to the prestigious Singareni Colleries Employees’ Union, scheduled for October 5, Chief Minister and TRS president K. Chandrasekhar Rao has announced a series of sops the employees would get, should the TRS-sponsored Telangana Boggu Gani Karimukula Sangham win. The TBGKS is pitted against the combined opposition-sponsored All India Trades Union Congress.
At a media conference at TRS headquarters on Friday, Mr Rao accused national trade unions such as Aituc, Intuc, and TNTUC of mortgaging the interests of Singareni employees and agreeing to withdraw the dependent jobs system much before the formation of TBGKS union. He wondered how the unions could now demand revival of the dependent jobs for employees’ family members when they themselves rejected it.
Mr Rao said that though his government had ordered the creation of the dependent job system, the representatives of the “so called national trade unions” went to the High Court which struck down the orders.
He said the Supreme Court too did not consider the special petition filed by the state government on technical grounds. “I have sought legal opinion on this and now decided to bring compassionate and compensatory employment to those family members of the existing employees who wish to take retirement due to special health related conditions prevailing in Singareni once the elections are completed,” he said.
Mr Rao said that without changing the nomenclature of the word dependent it was not possible to fulfil the age old promise.
He also promised to increase the number of diseases to be considered for medical invalidation so that maximum number of employees can avail the compassionate employment scheme. He said in case of dependents declining the job or not being eligible, the family will receive a one-time settlement of Rs 25 lakh or a monthly income of Rs 25,000 till they reach the age they would have retired.
The CM also announced extending the medical facility from spouse and children to include parents. He also promised interest-free home loan up to Rs 6 lakh for Singareni workers and claimed that it was only due to the efforts of the TBGKS, that the Singareni management had raised the profit share from 16 per cent to 25 per cent, besides increasing the Dasara advance and Diwali bonus.
He said the TBGKS succeeded in increasing ex gratia to Rs 25 lakh for accidental death, and Rs 20 lakh for natural death from a mere Rs 6 lakh and Rs 5 lakh respectively.
