A failed attempt to go on a strike has not taken the steam out of the trade unions opposing the Coal India IPO. They feel CIL employees should not subscribe to the public issue, as it would be tantamount to supporting disinvestment and privatisation. According to Coal India, the response from its employees has been weak. About 63.10 million shares were available for employees at a 10 per cent discount. The shares, if not subscribed by the employees, will be given to qualified institutional buyers, high net worth individuals and retail investors, the company said.
A D Nagpal, secretary of Hind Mazdoor Sangh (HMS), said: "Though the middle class is greedy for money, we are against disinvestment. We have all collectively taken a decision. How can we ask workers to subscribe to it, if we are against disinvestment in principle?" He said the unions had failed to unite on the strike called by HMS and Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh against the IPO on October 18.
Dipankar Mukherji, national secretary of CITU, echoed Nagpal's views. "We strongly believe that the employees should have nothing to do with it. What wealth would they make by helping in chipping off the assets of the company?"
AITUC secretary D L Sachdeva said: "When we don't approve of disinvestment, why would we want workers to subscribe for the shares? They are only getting 10 per cent of it. We would not advocate it even if it was more. For, we are not here to bargain on how many shares workers should get."
CIL has 420,000 employees on their rolls. The company, however, did not offer the shares on discount to its contract workers, who are hired on a low salary. The federations of various trade unions have been negotiating an increase in wages for the contract workers.
"Why should I want my assets to be sold and then a share be given to me? There is no logic in what is being done. If the debt equity ratio is 12 :1 for CIL (12 paise and 1 paisa respectively), then shouldn't I opt for debt rather than capital market to mobilise resources?" reasoned Mukherji.
