BSNL employees' unions call for hunger strike on November 25

BSNL employee unions have alleged that the management is forcing personnel to opt for a voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) by creating a fear psychosis and have called for a pan-India hunger strike on November 25. The unions, representing more than half of BSNL employees, have alleged that the management is threatening employees of reduction in retirement age to 58 years and far away postings if the employees don't opt for VRS, All India Unions and Associations of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (AUAB) Convenor P Abhimanyu told PTI on Sunday.

"We are not opposing VRS. Those who want and think it is beneficial for them should opt for it. It is not beneficial for lower-level employees and they are being threatened to take VRS, else retirement age will be reduced to 58. It is a forced retirement scheme, therefore we are going on a hunger strike on Monday," Abhimanyu said.

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Main bone of contention

The unions, in a notice for a hunger strike, have alleged that those opting for VRS will not be able to apply for pension commutation, which is one-third of pension amount payable over 15 years in advance, only after attaining the age of 60 years. "In case of any casualty, a person will not be able to apply for pension commutation. His family will get only family pension which is very less. Those who opt for VRS will not be able to claim benefit of the third pay revision... With 4G services starting soon and the proposed tariff hike in the sector, BSNL will become eligible for the third pay revision," Abhimanyu said. He alleged that banks a few years back offered better VRS compared to the scheme offered by BSNL, which is not lucrative. "If management stops threatening employees, the number of employees opting for VRS will significantly come down," Abhimanyu said.

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Nearly half of all staff have opted for VRS

According to BSNL Chairman and Managing Director PK Purwar, over 77,000 out of around 1.6 lakh employees of the loss-making telecom firm have opted for VRS. According to the plan, all regular and permanent employees of BSNL, including those on deputation to other organisations or posted outside the corporation on deputation basis, who attended the age of 50 years or above are eligible to seek voluntary retirement under the scheme. The amount of ex-gratia for any eligible employee will be equal to 35 days salary for each completed year of service and 25 days salary for every year of service left until superannuation. Employees' benefit accounts for 75-80% of the total revenue earned by the company annually. BSNL is looking at a savings of about Rs 7,000 crore in wage bill, if 70,000-80,000 personnel opt for the scheme.

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