Coal India recruits 343 freshers this season

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Coal India recruits 343 freshers this season


NEW DELHI: Coal India has hired 343 freshers from prestigious IITs and IIMs in the current placement season, more than double the number it had
hired last season, even as its global peers like Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton have cut jobs amid global economic crisis.

"We have hired 343 professionals this year from leading institutes like IITs, IIMs," Coal India Chairman Partha S Bhattacharyya said in an interview.

Last year, the firm had recruited 150 management trainees. The fresh recruits have been offered an annual pay packet of Rs 6 lakh, Bhattacharyya said.

Navratna PSU Coal India (CIL) at present has a workforce of 4,16,000, of which 16,000 are executives and the rest miners. The company expects its strength to fall to 3,80,000 in next two years on account of normal retirements.

"Our workforce would come down to about 3,80,000 by the terminal year of the present plan period (2011-12) by way of normal retirements," he said, adding the company would not go for any forced job cuts to achieve more efficiency.

It, however, plans to redeploy its employees to more productive mines and also shut down mining operations at some of the unviable locations.

"This (thought) is at its initial stage. We would discuss it in the Apex Committee on Production and Productivity, before coming out with such a plan,

source: economic times