Restore financial health, timely disbursal of salaries: BSNL union

 The management of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has failed in implementing the State-owned firm’s revival package to restore its financial health and disburse salaries on time, according to an employees’ union.

The Government had provided a sovereign guarantee to BSNL for raising ₹8,500 crore from the market through bonds. Further, the company’s monthly salary expenditure has also slashed by 50 per cent, following the retirement of about 80,000 employees through the Voluntary Retirement Scheme.

“Despite all these factors, 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 of India in October 2019,” BSNL Employees Union (BSNLEU) said in a letter.

The letter, dated January 28, was addressed to BSNL Chairman and Managing Director P.K. Purwar. BusinessLine has reviewed a copy of the letter.

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BSNLEU also alleged that salaries were not disbursed on due date during the entire calendar year 2020.

At present, the BSNL’s monthly revenue collection stands at ₹1,500 crore per month, while it requires only Rs 450 crore for salary payment. Still, the salaries are not disbursed on time, the union added.

The union also said that the management is not keen on involving the unions and associations of BSNL in implementing the revival plan, and is also not holding periodical interactions with them.

4G launch

On October 23, 2019, the Union Cabinet had decided to allot 4G spectrum to BSNL and later in April 2020, the radio waves were provided to the public sector unit.

The management should have used the spectrum to launch 4G services across all its circles at least 8 months ago, it said.

Since BSNL has not been able to launch 4G service to date, the company cannotmake inroads into the mobile segment. The union said that disenchanted with BSNL’s inability to start 4G service, customers have begun porting out to other operators.

BSNL’s landline and broadband segments are also faring “poorly”. After the departure of nearly 80,000 employees through the VRS and there is an acute shortage of workforce. Despite this, the company has retrenched contract workers, after delaying their wages for more than a year.

“This ill-advised decision has drastically affected the operation and maintenance of BSNL’s landline and broadband networks. The much tom-tommed outsourcing of works, through the SLA (service-level agreement) system, is a total failure, apart from draining the coffers of the company,” it added.