Over 500,000 non-executives of Coal India Ltd have called off their three-day nationwide strike, scheduled to begin on Monday, after the CIL management agreed on a five-year wage agreement with a 24 per cent hike in salaries.

Five leading unions (INTUC, AITUC, BMS, HMS, and CITU) had given the strike call from January 5 to 7 to press for their wage revision demand.

However, with the Coal India management and the unions entering into a memorandum of understanding on the wage agreement in Hyderabad on Sunday, the strike has been called off.

"Coal India has agreed to most of the demands of the workers, following which the strike call given by five coal federations has been called off," Indian National Mines Workers Federation President Rajendra Singh told PTI.

The wage agreement, for which the coal federations and the Navratna PSU have inked an MoU, is likely to be signed in the capital on January 23-24, he said.

According to the MoU, the wage agreement would be effective with retrospective effect from July 1, 2006 and the employees would get arrears from the effective date.

Among the major highlights of the proposed wage agreement would be a 100 per cent increase in dearness allowance, 12.5 per cent (of basic salary) allowance for employees working in underground mines, and one additional increment for those who are to retire by the end of the wage agreement period in 2011.