The Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) has announced lay-off in all its underground mines except the mechanised sections in five of them from the second shift of April 1, following the directions from the Director General of Mines Safety (DGMS) and Chief Inspector of Mines.
According to a circular issued by Director (Operations) of SCCL S. Chandrasekhar on Wednesday, the DGMS through its circular dated March 30 has instructed stoppage of manual underground face working, manual drilling and other support work as a precautionary measure to contain the spread of coronavirus. Accordingly, all operations in the underground mines and departments have been suspended by declaring lay-off to the employees.
The lay-off for the employees of the underground mines would be in force from the second shift of April 1 to third shift of April 14 or until the lockdown is lifted. However, the mechanised sections in ALP, VK-7 Incline, Shanthikhani, GDK-11A Incline and Kondapur undergroud mines as also the opencast mines and projects would be in operation “till further orders”. There are a total of 27 underground mines in Singareni.
Further, it is stated that the lay-off being declared as per the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, would be in force for all employees covered under the National Coal Wage Agreement (NCWA), except the essential staff. In spite of the lay-off, all precautionary measures announced earlier to prevent the spread of Covid-19 would continue to be in force. The lay-off wages would be paid as per the provisions of the Industrial Disputes Act.
The circular issued by the SCCL also said all safe operating procedures shall be followed by employees working in the mechanised sections of five underground mines as well as 18 opencast mines as also the essential staff in other places..
Several trade unions in SCCL and a few political parties such as CPI and CPI (M) have been demanding closure of underground mines to prevent the spread of coronavirus among the Singareni workers and their families from the day one of the lockdown.
