Coal India on Wednesday said that a proposed strike scheduled from 12th to 14th October 2023 has been deferred.

The public sector miner in a stock exchange filing said that representatives of trade unions while considering the appeal of management conveyed that the strike in establishments of Coal India and its subsidiaries is deferred.

This comes after a two-judge bench of Madhya Pradesh High Court at Jabalpur on Monday ordered a stay on a previous order dated August 29, which had supported a legal challenge by a group of executives to the proposed hike in salaries of non-executive workers.

"The immediate demand was the resumption of salaries of workers as per the National Coal Wage Agreement and that is now possible. So, there is no need to go with the strike," DD Ramanadan, general secretary, All India Coal Workers Federation told The Telegraph.

As per stock exchange disclosures, the agreement for salary and wages of non-executive employees of Coal India under NCWA-XI (National Coal Wage Agreement) was implemented in June 2023 and salaries for June onwards were being paid as per the revised rate. Coal India made a provision of Rs 8152.75 crore for the year ended March 31, 2023, and a further Rs 800.26 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2023.

However, it was observed in the August 29 order that following the implementation of NCWA-XI there was an overlapping of pay scales for executives and non-executives.

The decision of the trade unions to call off the strike comes as a big relief for Coal India which is looking to step up coal production and supply to the power plants to meet the rising demand.

Data from the government shows that generation from thermal power sources during August was 105.27 per cent of the planned generation for the month indicating higher demand during the period. Moreover, thermal power plants operated with a plant load factor of 67.43 per cent during August, which is more than 62.59 per cent planned for the month and 58.11 per cent clocked in August 2022.

Coal India's total supply to the power sector during the first six months of 2023-24 stood at 294.8 million tonnes, which is 1.8 MT more than the projected demand for the period. The public sector miner has been given a target to supply 610 MT of coal to the power sector during the ongoing fiscal.