As part of its ongoing series of austerity measures, the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) is aiming to further cut down on contract labourers and reduce expenditure.
As per a communication from the corporate office on June 19, all the circles have been asked to take “preventive measures” to curtail expenditure on contract labours.
The letter also includes a list of regions which were spending more on engaging contract labour. As per the list, Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam, Kannur, Kollam, Alappuzha, Kottayam, Kozhikode and Thrissur are having higher expenditure contract works or higher engagement of contract labour.
Review
Chief General Manager of the circle has been asked to review each of these regions and take steps to curtail expenditure.
According to leaders of the BSNL Employees Union (BSNLEU), these moves are a continuation of its policies to outsource its outdoor work including maintenance and new connections, following the mass retirement of staff earlier this year.
In Kerala, 4,596 out of the 9,381 employees had opted for the Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS). The number of contract staff was also progressively reduced from more than 8,000 to around 5,000 now, by reduction in retirement age from 60 to 58 to 55 now.
“The 1,300 odd telephone exchanges in Kerala were combined into 211 clusters, out of which external work in around 195 clusters have already been outsourced. Many of our contract staff will become jobless with this. Some of them have been accommodated under the various contractors taking up the work, but many still remain outside,” says C. Santosh Kumar, Circle Secretary, BSNLEU.
Dharna on June 26
Meanwhile, the trade unions have called for a nationwide dharna on June 26, as the ₹69,000 crore revival package announced by the Central government is yet to see the light of the day. Only the VRS package, to reduce the workforce by 79,000, has been implemented.
The 4G spectrum, awarded to private players in 2016, or the financial package is yet to be provided to BSNL. Though the BSNL as well as the employees’ unions have written several times to the government regarding 4G, there has been no response so far.
The union leaders say that all the private players have been providing 4G services for years now, but only the public sector telecom company has not been allowed to provide 4G services till date, which had led to erosion of customers, with private players like Reliance Jio making huge gains at its expense.