3rd August 2015
Sri Rakesh Singh,IAS
Secretary, Dept of Steel, Govt of India
& Chairman,SAIL, New Delhi.
Sub: Urgency required in resolving Pension issues
Ref: Our letter No. FORSE/Ch/SAIL-0715 dated 11th June 2015
We would like to provide a brief in the following paras
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 hundred only. This is redundant after 2006 due to new pension schemes in the PSUs for post-2006 retirees)
2. For post-2006 retirees: Under DPE OMs 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. Provisions were also made in the Annual Accounts towards the above expenditure. It may please be noted that most of the other PSUs – BHEL, NTPC, NLC, Oil PSUs. etc. - have already implemented. Out of sheer inefficiency and absence of strong will SAIL has shifted the date of implementing the proposed pension scheme for this category of employees from 1st January 2007 to 2012.(http://sailex.blogspot.in/2015/03/proposed-sail-pension-scheme-for.html) but not implemented so far for reasons better known to SAIL. Is SAIL fair to the retirees? Does SAIL expect the retirees to wither away so that all do not get benefit and thus SAIL will save money to call itself more than a Maharatna?
3. For Pre-2007 retirees: This set of retirees exist today in real miserable condition and some of them in much worse condition than those in BPL category and who are yet in suspense for over 6 years on formulation and implementation of the Pension and other benefit schemes when SAIL maintains total silence all through.
a) Just to refresh, after considering a lot of representations, discussion points and appeals, SCOPE recommended and the DPE issued an OM in July 2009 asking Maharatna PSUs incl. SAIL to create a corpus from 1.5 % of their Profit Before Tax (PBT) and prepare a post retirement benefit schemes for pre-2007 retirees which may include financial benefits like Pension, monthly income and fixed emergency support like ex-gratia payment etc.in addition to Health care facilities. SAIL refused to follow the DPE OMs in this regard for all the wrong reasons. Our innumerable request to SAIL for a meeting as well as for preparing a Scheme under OMs ended in silence on the other side.
b) SAIL’s contribution for retirement benefits of pre-2007 retirees has been much less – around 16% against around 30% for post-2006 retirees. There is no rational for this differentiation between these two artificially and arbitrarily created set of retirees by the Govt. Having been born earlier and worked from the inception of HSL/ SAIL helping to lay a strong foundation under a very difficult environment and working conditions (during 1950/60s) to make proud of it as Maharatna, it has proven to be a sin for these pre-2007 retirees.
c) The condition of early retirees in Eighties, Nineties and early years of the current century is more severe as they had separated with very meager superannuatory benefits and these parked money already exhausted to meet their day to day needs and rising health care expenses with interest rates touching rock bottom. Many of them who are in their 70s & 80s are still alive.
d) By providing more than one lakh retires with adequate pension and welfare benefits at par with some other PSUs and also the necessity propagated by national and International forum by way of discharging corporate social responsibility, the ex-employer SAIL will immensely help already dwindling these extremely distressed persons to survive a little longer in their last phase of life with dignity & with adequate medical attention.
4. Issues related to payment to erstwhile subsidiary employees: Payment of arrears to employees of IISCO and Bharat Refractories Ltd. (now SAIL Refractory Unit) are also due for long.
I. IISCO, Burnpur: our request made on 27th Nov. 2014 followed by No. Forse/ Ch/ 0615 dated May 06, 2015 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.
II. SAIL Refractory Unit: 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.
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. The decision initiators in SAIL or Govt unfortunately appears to be unable to view the condition of these early retirees with empathy as they belong to next generation & have no idea of the contribution by these persons at the initial stage (1950s/ 60s) and immediate and long term needs of a Retiree in today's context. The Govt views on Senior Citizens detailed in its portal seem to be meaningless for the decision makers and implementing authorities.
Considering the facts detailed above we appeal to you to take extra initiative to resolve and start payment of Pension and other financial benefits and improvement in Healthcare facilities with a mission and empathy through SAIL Mediclaim Scheme. It would be easier if SAIL recognises FORSE and calls us for a meeting at the earliest. SAIL Chairman, if need be, may take up the issues with the Hon’ble Union Minister of Steel / Govt. of India to help whenever and wherever required in implementing the DPE OMs for pre-2007 and post -2006 category of Retirees without further delay, if need be, by
i. Creating Corpus out of 1.5% of PBT since 1st Jan 2007.
ii Permitting transfer of unclaimed Provident Fund money to the SAIL corpus
iii Transferring back 1% of the dividend money
iv. Starting a Fixed deposit scheme for retirees with ROI at par with the interest rates paid by SAIL on money borrowed from the market.
v. 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.
With regards,
Best Wishes,
