SCCL recognised trade union polls on Oct 5

Kothagudem: The elections to choose the recognised trade union in the Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) will be held on October 5, after an unprecedented delay of 14 months. A notification to hold the elections on above said date has been issued.

At a meeting held at Singareni Bhavan in Hyderabad on August 14, all trade unions approved the decision of holding the elections in October. However, the CITU walked out of the meeting contending that the polls should not be held without affecting changes in the election rules.

For the first time, polls to the recognised trade union were held in September 1998. The tenure of the office of the recognised trade union was two years for the first two elections. Later, it has been stretched to four years.

The tenure of the last recognised trade union expired in June last year. Trade unions have been demanding holding elections since then, but it was put off as the situation, which suited only some trade unions, was ripe for holding the polls.

Meanwhile, a meeting was held on August 14, with representatives of trade unions at Singareni Bhavan in Hyderabad for finalising the election schedule. Initially, contract workers opposed the decision suspending the meeting, which resumed later and finalised the schedule.

The fourth elections to choose the recognised trade union were delayed by 10 months. Earlier delay in holding the polls was limited to just three or five months. But the current delay was the maximum, 14 months.

Compared to the number of workers who exercised their franchise in 2012 (63,429), the number of workers who are going to exercise their right to franchise is down by 7,849.

Currently, the worker strength of the SCCL is 55,580. In the past five years, over 15,000 retired from service. New recruitment carried out during the past two years put the total number of workers who could not exercise their right to franchise by 7,849.

All major trade unions sought a status quo on the election rules and regulations. Some trade unions voiced their demand for one worker two votes system.

Also in case of some other trade unions, they sought an opportunity to represent the workers’ problems at various levels along with the recognised trade unions.