The officers and workers of BSNL are going on a one day strike and a great rally is held at Main Telephone Bhavan PATIALA on 27.07.2017, demanding wage revision.Charanjiv Lal, Narinder Sharma,NR Mehmi, Ved Khanna,Gurmeet KAUR and Varinder Sharma address the rally. The next round of wage revision has become due for the entire public sector employees from 01.01.2017. The government formed the 3rd Pay Revision Committee (3rd PRC), headed by justice Satish Chandra (retired) for this purpose. The Committee has already submitted it’s report and it was approved by the Union Cabinet on19.07.2017. As per the “Affordability Clause” of the recommendations, only such of those Public SectorUndertakings (PSUs) which have earned profit during the last 3 financial years are eligible to give wage revision to their employees. Since the employees of BSNL are not eligible for wage revision as per the recommendations of the 3rd PRC, the unions and associations of BSNL have demanded exemption from the “Affordability Clause” of BSNL. They have made it clear to the government that, BSNL became a loss making entity not because of the employees but because of the anti-BSNL policies and measures adopted by the government. BSNL was not allowed to procure equipments for it’s mobile network expansion from 2006 to 2012. The tenders floated by BSNL to procure mobile equipments, were cancelled one after another by government, to benefit the private telecom companies.
The cancellation of the tender floated by BSNL in 2007, to procure 45 million line mobile equipments and cancellation of the tender floated in 2010 to procure 93million line mobile equipments were a severe blow for BSNL. As a result of this blockade created by the government in the procurement of equipments, BSNL was not able to qtake advantage of the exponential growth witnessed in the mobile segment, during this period.There after, significant improvement has come in BSNL’s quality of service.As a result of all these efforts, a significant change has come in the financial position of the Company. For example, Company incurred Rs.691 crore operational loss in the year 2013-14, whereas it earned an
operational profit of Rs.672 crore in 2014-15. This has increased to Rs.3,854 crore in the year 2015-16. Even in the midst of cut-throat competition from Reliance Jio, BSNL is adding 20 lakh new mobile customers every month. BSNL is sure to become a profit making PSU within next 2 / 3 years. The efforts and initiatives taken by the officers and workers of BSNL, and 9their unions and associations,have significantly contributed in taking BSNL in the revival path. Hence, BSNL should be given exemption from the “Affordability Clause” of the 3rd PRC report and BSNL employees should be given wage revision with 15% fitment. To insist upon this demand the officers and workers observed dharna on 20.06.2017 and hunger strike on 13.07.2017. Since, the government has not responded favourably, the officers and workers are going on one day strike on . The unions and associations will be compelled to resort to more serious forms of struggles, if government does not respond favourably to the demand of the employees.
The officers and workers of BSNL are going on a one day strike and a great rally is held at Main Telephone Bhavan PATIALA on 27.07.2017, demanding wage revision.Charanjiv Lal, Narinder Sharma,NR Mehmi, Ved Khanna,Gurmeet KAUR and Varinder Sharma address the rally. The next round of wage revision has become due for the entire public sector employees from 01.01.2017. The government formed the 3rd Pay Revision Committee (3rd PRC), headed by justice Satish Chandra (retired) for this purpose. The Committee has already submitted it’s report and it was approved by the Union Cabinet on19.07.2017. As per the “Affordability Clause” of the recommendations, only such of those Public SectorUndertakings (PSUs) which have earned profit during the last 3 financial years are eligible to give wage revision to their employees. Since the employees of BSNL are not eligible for wage revision as per the recommendations of the 3rd PRC, the unions and associations of BSNL have demanded exemption from the “Affordability Clause” of BSNL. They have made it clear to the government that, BSNL became a loss making entity not because of the employees but because of the anti-BSNL policies and measures adopted by the government. BSNL was not allowed to procure equipments for it’s mobile network expansion from 2006 to 2012. The tenders floated by BSNL to procure mobile equipments, were cancelled one after another by government, to benefit the private telecom companies.
