BSNL's HR policy a total disaster: Employee group

 NEW DELHI: The human resource (HR) policy and inability to disburse timely salaries by the state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) is a total failure, and that despite a third of its revenue is spent on salary outgo after the Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS), a Delhi-based employee union Thursday said.

"The situation has deteriorated during the last one year, and it seems the organisation is no more employee-friendly. Delayed salary is one issue which is sending a wrong signal to the market," P Abhimanyu, general secretary of the BSNLEU told ETTelecom.

"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 half years," BSNL Employee Union in a letter dated January 28, 2021 to chairman PK Purwar said.

The employee group that represents as many as 63,000 telco's workforce further said that of the total monthly revenue of Rs 1,500 crore, salary expense has come down to nearly Rs 450-crore, but monthly wage disbursal was dragged for weeks during the entire year.

Last year, nearly 50% of the telecom company's workforce had opted for the voluntary retirement scheme (VRS), introduced as a part of the Cabinet-approved revival program that aimed to save more cash for the ailing telecom carrier.

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"No concrete steps have been taken to increase the revenue of BSNL, and most of the people actually opted for a retirement scheme due to apprehensions around state-owned operator's roadmap in the absence of next generation (4G) services," Abhimanyu said.

The group said that BSNL would have launched 4G quickly upto village block level since it has already deployed 49,300 3G base transceiver stations that are 4G upgradable, but the floating of new request for proposals (RFP) has put the initiative in limbo.

"The financial condition of the company has not shown much improvement. This only shows the total failure of the management in implementing the revival package announced by the government in October, 2019, the union in the letter added.

In addition to non-availability of next generation of services, he said that BSNL has been deprived of government-funded connectivity initiatives which have added to its woes.

In a letter, the BSNLEU further said that the Group Term Insurance (GTI) has not been implemented for the non-executives for the past one and half years.

The non-holding of the various competitive examinations for the 18 months, according to the group, has not only deprived the company of getting bright hands for manning vital networks, but has also demotivated a section of the employees.

The employee union also said that the BSNL management has not been engaging them which only demotivates the workforce.