Tata Motors signed a three-year wage agreement with its Telco Workers? Union (TWU) here on Wednesday, which union officials said, would on the basis of an average monthly increase of Rs 5, 961 per employee go on to hike the auto major?s monthly wage bill for this unit alone by around Rs 5.96 crore?an extra annual burden of around Rs 71.52 crore.
TWU sources said the agreement is specific only to the company?s Jamshedpur works and would be effective for the three-year period?between March 1, 2010 and March 31, 2013. This would not only covered Tata Motors? employees here, but also those of its two subsidiaries HV Axles and HV Transmissions, which altogether meant around 10,000 employees.
?The wage agreements with HV Axles and HV Transmissions are carbon copies of the wage agreement with TWU,? said a TWU official. Tata Motors spokesperson PJ Singh when asked on Thursday what the last wage bill of the unit had been and what the new bill would be like, said, ?We just don?t want to talk about the wage bill?.
Asked how many employees were covered by the wage agreement Singh said, ?I would not like to share this because then, people establish a direct correlation; we don?t want to get into that?. According to the company, the average total direct and indirect benefit to each employee covered by the wage agreement would amount to Rs 5,961 per month. The minimum benefit to each employee worked out to Rs 5,799 per month, Rs 6,207 is the maximum benefit per month an employee could expect from the agreement.
Asked what the wage agreement meant to the employees, TWU sources said, ?It (the agreement) has been a very good thing for the employees; we are thankful to the management too which showed a positive approach?.
According to the memorandum of settlement, pay scales of employees of the unit have been revised from the earlier Rs 4,500-Rs 12,425 to Rs 5,000-Rs 15,430, with a minimum guaranteed fitment benefit of Rs 1,800 plus one increment in the revised grade. Fitment benefit for temporary employees is to be Rs 1,250.
According to the pact whereas the minimum increment rate has been raised from Rs 105 to Rs 115, the maximum increment rate has gone up to Rs 185 from Rs 175, with the minimum wage for employees on roll in the revised wage structure going up to Rs 11,428 per month.
The auto major has also hiked transport allowance of its employees here from Rs 885 per month to Rs 1,200 per month; similarly, education allowance, uniform maintenance allowance, house maintenance allowance, LTA, HRA, etc, have all seen an increase in the agreement.
The company said that it had also replaced its existing ?quality linked payment? (QLP) with a new ?performance based payment scheme (PBPS) which would encompass four major parameters viz safety, productivity, quality and operating profit (EBITA) of the company.
?The workmen shall be benefited with Rs 810 per month based on the scheme in April 2010?, a release said.
