April
13, 2015
The Apex
Council of the Federation reviewed the progress and changes made in the lives
and conditions of the SAIL Retirees after their last meeting at Bhilai in
September, 2014 and actions initiated thereafter by the Govt. and SAIL and took
the decisions which is in http://sailex.blogspot.in/2015/04/minutes-of-apex-council-meeting-ranchi.html The
Council came to the conclusion that SAIL refused to hear & ignored the issues of the SAIL
Retirees like Healthcare and Pension and other financial benefits based on the
separate Govt. advice in the form of DPE OMs of 2009 for (i) pre-2007 SAIL
Retirees who exist today in real miserable condition and some of them in much
worse condition than those in BPL category and(ii) post-2006 SAIL Retirees who
are yet in suspense for over 8 years on
formulation and implementation of the Pension and other benefit schemes. It
further observed that SAIL, a Maharatna Company, continued to overlook the
issues of the SAIL Retirees and maintained total silence all through the period
a. even after our Appeal and the Resolution taken at Bhilai on 21st
Sept 2014 addressed to them alongwith the brief in the document SAIL
ignoring its Retirees - Statement of Fact and Appeal for Action in http://sailex.blogspot.in/2015/04/sail-ignoring-its-retirees.html
b. our request made on 27th Nov. 2014 for urgent release of
payment of arrears to employees of IISCO retired between 01.01.1997 and
31.01.2006 is yet to be looked into. Such a delay of over 9-10 years in
decision making does not show SAIL in a good light.
c. to expedite payment of arrear accruing out of wage revision from 1997
for erstwhile BRL employees, which was a deemed liability on the date of
amalgamation i.e. 01/04/2007. A sum
of Rs.10000/- was also paid as advance against the same and was not to be
recovered as per the notification in the Gazette of India dt. July 28, 2009
justifying the resultant effect of accrual and payability to the retirees.
d. Delayed implementation of SAIL Mediclaim Policy every time by 3-4 months
is making the Policy less effective and adding unnecessary anxiety to the
beneficiaries, that is, SAIL Retirees, for larger part of the year even when it
is coupled with the issues related not only to the well- being of the Retirees
but also to their life and death.
The Council
noted with concern that, in nut shell, the situation for the SAIL Retirees did
not change in years before and over the last six months now and in fact has
worsened due to the continued apathetic and ever static attitude of both the
Govt. of India and SAIL. Still further it was observed that SAIL did not
compare itself with PSUs belonging to Oil and Energy sector. Smaller Companies
like BEL and BHEL, as also our own sister Steel PSU, the RINL, provided much
better financial and Healthcare benefits to their Retirees.
The Apex
Council also noted the apathy shown by the Govt of India and its various
Ministries in dealing with the issues of the SAIL Retirees who happen to be the
Senior Citizens of this country, and not adhering to the words and spirit of
the Govt. portal on Senior Citizens and recent letter of PM addressed to Senior
Citizens in general. Further the Govt. also failed in directing SAIL to resolve
the long pending issues of the Retirees on the basis of DPE OMs which were
meant for Retirees benefits. Our
Expectations from the Union Minister of Steel/ Govt. of India on the Issues
before SAIL Retirees (the Senior Citizens) are based on the following
Background:
1. SAIL did not have a Pension Scheme. (When people
started retiring and pension proposals were made by the PSUs including SAIL,Govt
declared EPS-95 under which retirees are getting a few hundreds only. This is
redundant after 2006 due to new pension schemes in the PSUs for post-2006
retirees)
2. After considering a lot of representations, discussion
points and appeals, SCOPE recommended and the DPE issued an OM in July 2009
asking Maharatna PSUs to create a corpus from 1.5 % of their Profit Before Tax
(PBT) and prepare a post retirement benefit schemes for pre-2007 retirees.
3. SAIL refused to follow the DPE OMs in this
regard. Our innumerable request to SAIL for a meeting as well as preparing
a Scheme under OMs as also to the whole lot of Ministers, Officials incl. PM remained
without any response.
4. SAIL is providing in its accounts 30% of total salary
payment over and above it towards retirement benefit such as Gratuity, PF
contribution by SAIL, Health benefit & Pension for post-2006 retirees. SAIL
had not made any such provision & its contribution for retirement benefits
of pre-2007 retirees has been much less –around 16%. Thus having born earlier and
worked from the inception of SAIL/HSL
and helping to lay a strong foundation under a very difficult environment and working
conditions (during 1950/60s) to make proud of it as Maharatna has been a sin
for these pre-2007 retirees.
5. Worse of it all is that SAIL or the Government
Officials responsible for finding solution and helping the Retirees / Senior
Citizens do not respond to our communications because of which the
Communication gap and misunderstanding between the Retirees and SAIL/Government
system increases
Considering
the facts detailed above the two day meeting of the FORSE Apex Council at Ranchi resolved
the following:
A. The SAIL Chairman and Members of the SAIL Board be requested to listen
to our problems and grievances (attached as Annexure I) arising out of their
inaction for over the past 6 years& more and take immediate actionfor
improving
i.
the financial condition
by way of some minimum monthly payment and
ii. Healthcare conditions with a mission and empathy
of the Retirees to make them
live with dignity at their very old age.
B. The Hon’ble Union Minister of Steel / Govt. of India be requested to
advise SAIL
a) to recognize FORSE and hold discussions on regular intervals and
settle the out-standing issues of the retirees
b) to implement the DPE OMs for pre-2007 and post -2006
category of Retirees without further delay, if need be, by
i.
Permitting transfer of
unclaimed Provident Fund money to the SAIL corpus
ii.
Transferring back 1% of the
dividend money
iii.
Starting a Fixed deposit
scheme for retirees with ROI at par with the interest rates paid by SAIL on
money borrowed from the market.
iv.
Implementing with a mission
& empathy an effective, efficient and functioning Healthcare scheme at par
with those available to current employees with or without Mediclaim Insurance
with provision of annual increase in the cost of healthcare as they do not have
any other support.
C.
Apex Council authorized
the Office Bearers to go for the following time bound Action Plan in case of no
positive action by the Government/ SAIL in a reasonable time period:
I. All Member Associations shall publicize the contents of the Resolution
through Press Conference/ Press Releases by May2015 end.
II.
All Member
Associations shall hand over a copy of the Resolution to the Head of the SAIL
Offices in their location on 15th June 2015.
III.
All Member
Associations shall hand over a copy of the Resolution to the Head of the Government/
Head of the Administration/MPs in their location by 15thJuly 2015
In
case the response of SAIL or the Govt is not favourable to the Retirees the
Apex Council may initiate peaceful non-violent agitational programme like
Hunger strike etc.
(V. N. Sharma)
Chairman
M: 9431102680,
Ph:0651-2441524
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