Singareni Collieries: From Gloom To GloryPresented by: Group 11

• Traces its origins back to 1870 huge coal deposits were discovered in the Godavari Valley area of Andhra Pradesh.

• By 1997 it had 10,435 million tonnes of coal reserves including 12 open cast and 55 underground and an enormous workforce of 114,486 employees.

• Owned by Govt. Of Andhra Pradesh and Govt. of India in 51:49.• Post Liberalisation ( after 1991) saw companies importing coal from Australia,

Indonesia etc. coal prices became unprofitable for SCCL and by 1992 it was declared bankrupt to BIFR.

• In spite of a bailout package from the govt. SCCL faced concerns like poor industrial relations, wildcat strikes, trade unions, absenteeism, low productivity.

• As a result, it was again declared bankrupt again in 1996-97 and the losses had accumulated to INR 12.19 billion.

Singareni Collieries – History & Concerns

• APVN Sarma took the reins in in 1997 and realised that there was virtually communication between the company and its employees and decided to bridge this gap.

• Handpicked his top management team and defining distinct and clear roles between each one of them.

• Bridging the trust deficit between the employees and the organisation.• Improving Organisational Communication

– SCCL came up with vision “promote the spirit of Singarenism among Singarenians”.– Sending letters to all the employees stating the ill health and dark future of the company.– Field trips of Area General Managers to understand the concerns faced by the employees

and another within a fortnight to check if the concerns were resolved. – Employee Achievements were broadcasted via press releases, television channels etc.

• Formation of Multi Department Teams– Objective was to convey the top management’s, inform employees about the organization’s

health and carry suggestions from workers.• Demonstrating Care and Concern

Dawn of a New Era – Rise of SCCL

• Enhancing Employee Motivation– Employee Incentive Scheme to measure and reward individual performance. – In addition to the annual bonus, employees received an incentive based on individual

performance including the Best Worker Award.– In addition, SCCL re-started sending mid level executives to foreign countries for training.

• Promoting Industrial Peace– Sarma decided to regulate unions by holding unions elections to deal with the lack of

discipline and the absenteeism issues. – This dealt with the inter union rivalry and made communication between the company

and the unions more disciplines.– As a result SCCL observed its first strike free calendar month in 18 years during August

2000.• Rationalisation of Manpower

– To curb the increasing manpower and low productivity SCCL changed its policy to granting jobs to dependants of employees against a vacancy only.

– Centralised recruitment and transfers to ensure transparency.– Introduced pension an VRS Schemes.

Dawn of a New Era – Rise of SCCL

• Under the leadership and beliefs of Sarma, SCCL posted profits for 4 straight years with net profit rising to INR 894 Million in 2001.

• The accumulated loss had declined by a whooping 53.6 per cent from INR 12.19 billion in 1996-97 to INR 5.65 billion in 2001.

• SCCL saw a steep rise in productivity and an equal decrease in absenteeism and other menaces that haunted SCCL in the 90’s.

The Magnificence of Establishing Trust and Communication

Thank You!