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‘Management’s Bad Policies Have Put BSNL into Further Distress,’ Say Employees; Salary Dues Continue

BSNL Employees Union say the management is pushing the employees to come to the streets every month and agitate to get disbursement of their salaries.

The employees of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) who have been in distress due to the policies of the management are struggling again as their due salaries have piled up. The employees of the public-sector telecom service provider have not been receiving their salaries on due dates since more than last one year. Now, the management is yet to disburse their December 2020 salaries.

Even though the employees, along with the unions and associations in BSNL, have been protesting against this issue within the company, the condition has remained same. “It is a tragedy that the Management is pushing the employees to come to the streets every month and agitate to get disbursement of their salary,” said P Abhimanyu, general secretary of BSNL Employees Union.

At present, the monthly revenue collection of BSNL stands at Rs 1,500 crores. Of this, the expenditure for the payment of net salary to the employees comes to only to Rs 450 crores. The employees, however, do not get salary on time as it is the last priority of the management, allege employees.

BSNL has been reeling under various issues for the past few years, especially after the Narendra Modi-led government had come to power. When all the private telecom companies are gearing up for 5G services, BSNL is struggling to offer 4G services to its users. After multiple protests by employees, the government has allotted 4G spectrum free of cost to BSNL. Further, “the government has also extended Sovereign Guarantee to BSNL, for raising Rs 8,500 crores from the market, by way of issuing bonds. Above all, the monthly salary expenditure of the Company has already been cut down by 50%, by way of the retirement of around 80,000 employees through VRS-2019. Despite all these factors, the financial condition of the company has not shown much improvement,” said Abhimanyu, adding, This only shows the total failure of the management in implementing the revival package announced by the government of India in October, 2019.”

The Union Cabinet took decision on October 23, 2019 for the allotment of 4G spectrum to BSNL and it was made available to the company in April, 2020. In between, there was a 'golden period' of six months, which could have been effectively utilised to upgrade BSNL’s 49,300 4G compatible BTSs, say the employees.

The employees also feel that if this opportunity had been properly utilised by the management, the ocmpany could have launched its 4G service eight months ago at the pan India level. As the management has failed to do so, BSNL's 4G launching still remains a distant dream.

With lack of 4G service, the company is not able to make inroads into the mobile segment. “Disenchanted with the inability of the company to start its 4G service till date, BSNL’s existing customers have started porting out to other 4G service providers. Who is to be held responsible for this fiasco? In the landline and broadband segments also, BSNL is faring poorly,” Abhimanyu pointed out.

The retrenchment of nearly 80,000 employees under VRS, had resulted in an acute shortage of manpower at the field level. Along with this, the contractual workers have also been sent home. The more bitter factor is that these contractual workers were sent home after delaying payment of their wages for more than a year.

These steps drastically affected the operation and maintenance of BSNL’s landline and broadband networks. Lakhs of landline and broadband customers are leaving BSNL every month, due to the deterioration of the services.

“The BSNL Management's HR policy is a total disaster. On the one hand, the employees are totally demoralised and demotivated due to the non-disbursement of salary on time. On the other hand, even the HR issues, which do not involve any expenditure to the company, have not been settled for more than one and a half years. For example, the Group Term Insurance (GTI) has not been implemented for the Non-Executives for the past one and half years, even though its implementation will not cost even a penny to the company,” said Abhimanyu. The non-holding of the various Internal Competitive Examinations for the last one and half years has not only deprived the company of getting bright hands for manning its vital networks, but has also demotivated a pivotal section of the employees,” he added.

BSNL’s workforce, however, has immensely contributed to the improvement of the quality of its services and thereby, in increasing the market share of the company, employees say. It is important to mention that, this work force has even worked beyond duty hours and without expecting any extra remuneration, to implement movements like “Customer Delight Year”, “Service With A Smile”, etc., called on by the All Unions and Associations of BSNL (AUAB).

Now, the BSNL Management does not want to involve the unions and associations, which are representing this workforce, for the implementation of the Revival Plan announced by the government. Unlike its predecessors, the current management is not holding periodical interactions with the unions and associations to explore how best the workforce can be involved in the early financial revival of the company, said the employees.

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