Tipping the pay scales: Coal India to spend Rs. 1000 Cr on salary hikes
Coal India is set to see through an add-on outgo of Rs. 800 Cr due to the salary hikes of executives along with an additional Rs. 200 Cr if the arrear component in factored in. The state-run miner is looking at a provision of Rs 100 Cr for every quarter and thus amounting to Rs 400 Cr in the year.
A senior executive went on record stating that pay scales have been revised in accordance with the salaries of executives at ONGC. This was in keeping with persistent demands from employees whose salaries had not been revised in years. Salaries at Coal India are usually revised every decade and this revision was due for over a year.
While the entry-level salary range used to be Rs 16,400-40,500, it has now been hiked to Rs 40,000-1,40,000 per month. Dearness allowance, which was at 117 per cent of basic pay has now been merged with the salary leading to a 20 per cent top-up on gross earnings. While the salaries of sub-board level executives have been raised to Rs 1.5 lakh-3 lakhs from Rs 62,000-80,000, salary of the chairman has been increased to Rs 2 lakh-3.7 lakhs from Rs 80,000-1.25 lakhs.
The pay scale had been lagging behind that at “maharatna” companies for a while now and hopefully employees would now be placated with the attempt at raising the salaries to be at par with PSUs.
Is a decade-long cycle the best pay scale evaluation cycle to be on? Would the next change move at par with the rest of the organizations or would mounting dissatisfaction and consistent complaints again be the basis of modification?