BSNL EMPLOYEES TO STRIKE NATIONWIDE ON 15TH DECEMBER, 2011

BSNAL PLANS TO DISMISS 10,000 EMPLOYEES

PENSION IN BSNL

MOBILE TOWERS

BHARAT SANCHAR NIGAM LIMITED

CASUAL, CONTRACT WORKERS HOLD DHARNA

V A N Namboodiri

AS per the call of the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited Casual and Contract Workers Federation (BSNLCCWF), a big dharna of casual and contract workers took place on August 26 in the BSNL corporate office premises in Delhi. About 1000 workers from almost all the states participated.

There are about one lakh casual and contract workers engaged in the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL). These workers are being employed to work in cables, lines, office, towers, data entry and so on. They are being exploited by both the management (the principal employer) as well as the contractors. The main demands raised in the dharna were for regularisation of the casual labour, payment of wages on IDA scales to casual labour instead of CDA wages, implementation of minimum wages and social security measures like EPF and ESI, and also no victimisation and no retrenchment.

Numbering about 4,000, the casual labour in the BSNL are engaged since prior to 1998, and they were given the assurance that they would be regularised to the extent of vacancies available when they complete 240 days of work in a year without any break. An agreement was made at the time of corporatisation of the BSNL in 2000 that all the left-out casual labour, on fulfilling the required conditions, would be absorbed in BSNL by regularising them. About 4,000 of them were indeed regularised, but still another 4,000 still continue to work as casual labour. Out of these, 2,270 are from West Bengal alone. While casual labour were regularised to some extent in all states, not even a single worker was regularised in West Bengal. Some of them are compelled to work as contract workers. The management is refusing to regularise them on the plea of a Supreme Court judgement. But on the basis of the same Supreme Court judgement, the departments of income tax, customs, central excise, posts etc have regularised their casual labour. Even after continuously working for more than 10 or 15 years, these causal workers are still denied regularisation.

At present, the casual labour are being paid daily wages at 1/30th of the wages of the group D of the central government employees, i.e. at the CDA scale. They are working in the BSNL, a public sector undertaking, where the Industrial Dearness Allowance (IDA) pattern of wages, which are higher, exists. But the BSNL management has been refusing to implement the IDA wages.

After a sustained struggle, during which the issue was also brought to the notice of the parliamentary standing committee on labour, the BSNL management issued an order to pay minimum wages to the contract workers based on the notification of the government of India or that of the state government, whichever is higher. But except in very few places, the order has not been implemented. Only about 50 per cent of the minimum wages are being paid in most of the places. While it is incumbent on the principal employer to ensure full payment of wages, the management is shutting its eye to this injustice.

Again, after a serious agitation, the corporate office issued orders regarding deduction of contribution towards the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and Employees State Insurance (ESI) from the workers’ wages and opening of their accounts. But these have not yet been implemented, causing a great loss to the workers. In some cases, workers have gone to an industrial tribunal or labour court, and the management has been asked to pay crore of rupees towards payment to EPF. Still the management is not taking necessary action.

After the formation of the Casual and Contract Workers Federation and its agitations, leaders of the Federation at many places are being denied work. When the payment of minimum wages is insisted upon, the contractor reduces the number of workers, resulting in loss of job.

These were the main issues focussed by the dharna that was organised on August 26.

CITU general secretary Tapan Sen inaugurated the dharna. He extended full support to the demands of the workers and urged upon them to strengthen the organisation and continue their struggle. He said the government has been aggressively implementing the neo-liberal policies and, as a result, attacks on workers are mounting. The entire trade union movement in the country has been continually organising struggles against the anti-worker policies. Sen informed that an all-India convention called by the central trade unions would be held at Mavlankar Hall on September 7 to chalk out further programmes of action.

BSNLEU & BSNLCCWF president V A N Namboodiri, BSNLEU general secretary P Abhimanyu, BSNCCWF secretary general Tapas Ghosh and other leaders also addressed the dharna. A memorandum on the demands of the workers was submitted to the BSNL management and discussed.

The all-India conference of the BSNLCCWF, which will be held at Lucknow on September 24 and 25, will review the situation and chalk out further programmes.

Courtesy: People's Democracy

BSNL EMPLOYEES DEMONSTRATE AGAINST THE MANAGEMENT

BSNL EMPLOYEES ON THE PATH OF STRUGGLE

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MERGER OF BSNL WITH ITI

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HISTORIC VICTORY OF BSNL EMPLOYEES UNION - V A N NAMBOODIRI

Once again, BSNL Employees Union won with good majority in the Membership Verification conducted for electing the representative union for the non-executive employees in BSNL. This is the fourth consecutive time that BSNLEU has won. The membership verification through secret ballot was conducted on 1st February and the result declared on 4th February 2011.

The total number of voters were 2,29,690 and votes polled were 2, 17,321(94.61%). BSNLEU got 1, 06,971 votes with 46.57% of the total votes and the second union NFTE BSNL got 80,300 votes (34.96%). INTUC Union viz. FNTO got 16,951 votes (7.38%). BSNLEU was declared elected with a big margin of 26671 votes.

Although 15 unions participated in the verification, the real fight was between BSNLEU led United Forum and NFTE BSNL led Workers Alliance. The United Forum included four other unions, while Workers Alliance was a 10 union’s alliance. FNTO, the INTUC Union and BMS union contested separately. BMS Union got 4687 votes (2.04%).

BSNL Employees Union since its inception has always been focusing the necessity to save and strengthen BSNL, as also making it financially viable and service oriented.

Improving efficiency was its watch word. BSNL has been making good profit and maintaining its market share despite stiff competition from the private telecom companies. But the anti- PSU policy and unjustified intervention by the government adversely affected the procurement of mobile equipments.

The company naturally went down losing its market share, being unable to provide sufficient lines to the people. It was only due to the sustained struggles by the workers that BSNL got procurement, at least to some extent. BSNLEU took the initiative in bringing all the unions together under the Joint Forum/ Joint Action Committee and organised successful struggles.

BSNLEU participated in all the struggles and strikes organised by the Central Trade Unions and the Sponsoring Committee of Trade Unions as also CPSTU. It could bring some other unions also in to these struggles. It has also given call for participation in the Parliament March on 23rd February 2011.

The good wage negotiation together with a new promotion policy to the non-executives settled during the last two years through struggles and hard bargaining gave an edge to BSNLEU in the verification. These two settlements have benefitted all the workers substantially.

The victory has brought much more responsibilities on BSNLEU. The Central Government, though kept its assurance to the unions not to disinvest BSNL for the time being due to the sustained struggle of the workers, may at any time try to introduce the same. It is the same case with VRS/CRS. On the plea of austerity measures, contract workers, who are engaged for years together, are being retrenched.

The neo-liberal, pro-private, anti-PSU policy and decisions of the government are creating roadblocks for the growth of the company. There is severe discrimination of BSNL compared with the private companies. Being in loss for about Rs. 1,850 crore in last financial year (2009-2010), management will try not to take any decision on financial benefits to the workers.

It is also uncertain what the UPA II government is going to bring through the New Telecom Policy anchored by the new Communications Minister. All these issues will have to be squarely combated by the recognised union.

The fourth consecutive victory by the BSNLEU has to be utilised to advance the united struggles of the working class to protect their rights and advance their just demands.

Courtesy: www.citucentre.org/

BSNL EMPLOYEES UNION AGAIN WINS VERIFICATION CONTEST - V A N Namboodiri

THE BSNL Employees Union (BSNLEU) has, once again, won a good majority in the membership verification conducted for electing the representative union for the non-executive employees in the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), a telecom major. This is the fourth time in a row that the BSNLEU has won the top position in the membership verification process.

This year the membership verification through secret ballot was conducted on February 1, the counting took place on February 3 and the result was declared on February 4. The total number of voters in the process were 2,29,690, and 2,17,321 votes were polled; this comes to 94.61 per cent of the total. Of this figure, the BSNLEU got 1,06,971 votes, that is, 46.57 per cent of the votes polled. The second in rank was the NFTE BSNL that got 80,300 votes or 34.96 per cent. The INTUC led union, i.e. the FNTO, got only 16,951 votes or 7.38 per cent. Thus the BSNLEU was declared elected with a big margin of 26,671 votes.

Though as many as 15 unions participated in the verification process, the real fight was between the BSNLEU led United Forum and the NFTE BSNL led Workers Alliance. The United Forum included four other unions, while Workers Alliance was a 10-union alliance. The FNTO (INTUC) and the BMS led union contested separately. The BMS union got a paltry 4,687 votes or 2.04 per cent.

BSNLEU STAND VINDICATED

The contest was not confined to the issues facing the BSNL workers, but concerned what the ideological stand has to be taken in the present era of neo-liberalisation. Since its inception, the BSNL Employees Union has always been focussing on the necessity to save and strengthen the BSNL, as also of making it financially viable and service oriented. Improving efficiency was its watchword. The BSNL has been making good profit and maintaining its market share despite stiff competition from the private telecom companies. But the anti-public sector policy and unjustified intervention by the government has adversely affected the corporation and hindered the procurement of mobile equipments. Thus, as the company was unable to provide sufficient lines to the people, it naturally went down and began losing its market share. It was only due to the sustained struggles mounted by the workers that the BSNL was able to make procurements to an extent at least. The BSNLEU took the initiative in bringing all the unions together under the Joint Forum/ Joint Action Committee and organised successful struggles.

Apart from it, the BSNLEU participated in all the struggles and strikes organised by the central trade unions, by the Sponsoring Committee of Trade Unions as also by the Central Public Sector Trade Unions (CPSTU). Moreover, it brought some other unions too into these struggles. It has endorsed the central trade unions’ call for participation in the Parliament March on February 23 coming.

Although claiming to be a leftist union, the Workers Alliance, which is headed by the NFTE BSNL, has most of the time been towing the management line and also supporting the anti-worker policies of the government. They left the Joint Forum on flimsy grounds to avoid participating in agitations and strikes.

The FNTO contested the verification process in its own name in order to establish its identity as an INTUC affiliated union. Its leaders used the name and photo of the prime minister and the communications minister, in addition to that of the Congress president, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, to seek the votes as a government sponsored union. But that did not help it in any way.

One recalls that the BSNL was formed in October 2000 and the first membership verification took place in 2002. There was difference of opinion among the unions about whether the verification needed to be conducted through the check-off system or through the secret ballot system. While the NFTE insisted on the check-off system, the BSNLEU insisted on secret ballot. Finally, the latter system was adopted.

In the first verification, the NFTE won with 35 per cent of the votes polled while the BSNLEU got 30 per cent. Only the NFTE was then recognised on the principle that only one union could be recognised under the Code of Discipline. However, in the second, third and fourth verifications, the BSNLEU won with more than 50 per cent of the votes polled. In It has won the latest verification, it has won with 49.22 per cent of the votes polled.

After the first verification exercise, the number of voters has been progressively declining, as about 10,000 workers are retiring every year without any new recruitment. Thus, while in the first verification, there were about 3,00,000 voters, there are only about 2,30,000 in the fifth verification exercise.

NEED OF MORE VIGIL, STRUGGLES

The whole verification exercise was disciplined and peaceful. For almost a month, leaders of various unions had been touring the country and holding meetings in their campaign to reach to the workers. The president and general secretary of the BSNLEU toured almost all the circles separately and addressed meetings. All central office bearers of the union were given charge of various circles to prepare for the verification. Wall-posters etc were printed in large numbers and displayed/circulated. Meetings with massive participation were organised in each and every SSA and district. Website, e-mail, SMS --- all these devices were effectively used. Pamphlets were published, focussing on the achievements of the BSNLEU for the last two years. The union chalked out a charter of demands to be fought for in the next two years and circulated it among the employees. The All India BSNL-DOT Pensioners Association (AIBDPA) and BSNL Casual & Contract Workers Federation (BSNLC&CWF) actively participated in the election campaign in support of the BSNLEU.

The good wage negotiation as also a new promotion policy to the non-executives, settled during the last two years through struggles and hard bargaining, gave an edge to the BSNLEU in the verification process. These two settlements have benefited all the workers substantially.

The verification was conducted in consultation with the Election Commission and ballot boxes were procured on loan. Hundreds of labour officers supervised it. There were more than 2,000 polling booths throughout the country, manned by more than 10,000 personnel. The entire process of a general election was followed in the polling, counting etc, with the participation of the contesting unions.

The victory has brought more responsibilities for the BSNLEU. After a sustained struggle by the workers, the central government gave its assurance to the unions about not disinvesting the BSNL for the time being. Though it has honoured its word so far, it may any time try to resort to the corporation’s disinvestment. It is the same with voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) and compulsory retirement scheme (CRS). On the plea of austerity measures, contract workers, who have been engaged for years together, are being retrenched now. The neo-liberal, pro-private sector, anti-public sector policy and decisions of the government are creating roadblocks for the growth of the BSNL which is facing total discrimination from the government that favours the private companies. Being in a loss of about Rs 1,850 crore in the last financial year (2009-10), the BSNL management is refraining from taking any decision on financial benefits to the workers. Also, one is not certain about what the UPA II government is going to bring through the new telecom policy anchored by the new communications minister. All these issues will have to be squarely met by the recognised union.

The fourth consecutive victory by the BSNLEU has to be utilised to advance the united struggles of the working class to protect their rights and advance their just demands.

Courtesy: www.pd.cpim.org/

BHARAT SANCHAR NIGAM LIMITED EMPLOYEES UNION HOPES TO WIN RECOGNISED UNION STATUS

A LARGE number of employees of the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), the telecom major, took part in the membership verification poll to elect the recognised or representative union of non-executive employees in the organisation. The secret ballot for this purpose was held on February 1, 2011. The polling took place in more than 2000 polling booths all over India and was supervised by the BSNL or Labour Department officers.

The total number of eligible voters was about 2, 30,000 and it is reported that about 95 per cent of them have voted.

Though 15 unions were contesting for the status of representative union, the main fight was between the BSNL Employees Union (BSNLEU) and the National Federation of Telecom Employees (NFTE). The BSNLEU has won in the last three verification polls with more than 50 per cent of the polled votes and has been granted recognition as the representative union since 2005.

One of the participating unions, viz. the Federation of National Telecom Organisations (FNTO), approached the Ernakulam High Court against the verification, but could obtain no stay and the election was conducted as per the schedule.

The BSNL Employees Union expects to win again, with a good percentage of votes, in the background of a good wage revision and implementation of promotion policy for which it fought with determination. It has also organised sustained struggles for improvements in the BSNL and against its disinvestment and privatisation. The BSNLEU has conveyed its greetings and thanks to all the workers for the peaceful and disciplined election campaign and polling as also their support to the BSNLEU.

Source: www.pd.cpim.org

BHARAT SANCHAR NIGAM LIMITED: EMPLOYEES VOTE AGAINST DISINVESTMENT

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WORKERS DETERMINED TO SAVE BSNL - V A N NAMBOODIRI

THERE is no better example than that of the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), a fully government owned telecom company, of to how a profitable public sector undertaking (PSU) can be made unviable and gradually killed. Of course, nobody can forget the case of Air India-Indian Airlines which is in a bailout process today.

CHANGE IN ATTITUDE

One may recall that soon after independence, the government of India under Pt Jawaharlal Nehru realised the extreme importance of the PSUs for developing and expanding the core industries as also for preparing the basic infrastructure. The private sector neither had the finance and technology needed for this huge task nor the inclination to invest in such fields. The PSUs were then the answer. Accordingly, many PSUs were established within a few years of independence.

Apart from this process, some of the PSUs came into existence during the 1950s and 1960s through the nationalisation of loss making private companies. These included many private textile companies which were transformed into the National Textile Corporation (NTC). Many private banks, which were mismanaged, were also nationalised. The ESSO and Burma Shell were nationalised, forming the HPCL and BPCL. This ensured better and transparent functioning of the nationalised companies.

But the neo-liberal policy of globalisation and privatisation, initiated by the central government in the early 1990s, involved a complete change in the government’s attitude towards the PSUs. Private sector became the priority. “Business is not the business of the government” became its watchword. Certain government departments were targeted for privatisation. However, since it was very difficult to accomplish this task in one stroke, the government started converting departmental services into corporations, which could later be privatised.

In this scenario, telecom was one of the fast developing sectors which the government wanted to hand over to private hands. Accordingly, overseas communications was converted into a PSU called the Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL), telecom services in Delhi and Bombay were converted into the Mahanagar Telecom Nigam Limited (MTNL) and, lastly, the DTS, DOT and DTO were converted into the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL).

FORMATION OF THE BSNL

The unions in the sector protested and went on a strike against this corporatisation, but at last an agreement was reached and the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited was formed on October 1, 2000.

The government assured that to ensure the financial viability of the BSNL, reimbursement of licence fee, payment of access deficit charges (ADC) collected from private companies, as also the grant from Universal Service Obligation Fund towards providing services in the loss making rural and remote areas, but as a part of the social commitment of government for universal service, will be granted to the BSNL. These assurances were honoured for a few years but are were either stopped or drastically reduced later, in violation of the government’s commitment.

Favouritism to private companies started even before the BSNL’s formation. These companies were granted licences to provide mobile services in 1995, but it was denied to both DoT and MTNL. The BSNL and MTNL were granted mobile licences only in 2002, 6 to 7 years after they were given to private telecom companies (telcos). This gave the latter an undue advantage to capture the booming market.

Conditions were liberalised one after another for private telcos on the pressure of the big business and multinationals. Licences for mobiles were granted first for a fixed amount, which could fetch for the government a total of more than Rs 55,000 crore. But the policy was changed to revenue sharing, which drastically reduced the amount to be paid, causing huge losses to the government.

While there are so many rules and regulations for the BSNL as a PSU to procure equipments, private telcos have no such restrictions. Procurement by the BSNL was unduly delayed and even stopped by the government, resulting in capacity crunch and inability to provide mobile lines. While BSNL was barred from purchasing equipments from Chinese vendors in the name of national security, private telcos were freely allowed to use Chinese equipments, which are comparatively cheap.

As a PSU, the BSNL has the responsibility to implement the social commitments of the government like providing services in rural and remote areas, while private companies are allowed to bypass even their limited commitments. After approaching the TDSAT (Telecom Disputes Settlement & Appellate Tribunal), private companies got relaxation to pay less licence fee on the basis of a share of adjusted gross revenue (AGR) earned through operations only. But the BSNL is compelled to pay a share of the total revenue. Also, it was not allowed to approach the TDSAT for a similar relaxation.

In the same way, private companies are allowed to pay only the initially fixed spectrum charges, but the BSNL is forced to pay an increased share of the spectrum charges, fixed by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). In all these issues, BSNL is discriminated without any justification. In contrast, private companies were always able to get preferential treatment and more benefits. For the government, their interest was more important than its own companies’ interests.

UNKINDEST OF THE CUTS

Despite the fact that mobile licences were granted to the BSNL 6-7 years after they were given to private companies, BSNL through hectic efforts became number two in mobile services and was competing for the first position by 2006. An ambitious tender for 45.5 million mobile equipments was floated and after disposing of a court case filed by Motorola against disqualification, the purchase order was about to be issued. But at this very crucial juncture the government intervened and got the tender cancelled. It was only due to the one-day successful strike by employees on July 11, 2007 that about half of the tender was saved. But unfortunately, only about a quarter of the tender was purchased, resulting in a dire capacity crunch and inability to provide mobile lines to the people. The downfall started at this stage. See Table I given below.

TABLE I No. of Telephone Connections Provided by Different Companies in India from March 2005 to March 2010 (Figures in Lakh Lines)
Company	Fixed	Mobile	Total	Market Share%	Fixed	Mobile	Total	Market Share%
	31.03.2005				31.03.2006
BSNL	357.3	101.6	458.9	47.5	367.8	184.5	552.3	39.3
MTNL	40.8	9.7	50.5	5.2	38.2	19.9	58.1	4.1
Bharti	8.6	109.8	118.4	12.3	13.5	195.8	209.3	14.9
Reliance	13.1	104.5	117.6	12.2	31.3	173.1	204.4	14.6
Hutch	0	91.4	91.4	9.5	0	153.6	153.6	10.9
Tata	18.3	10.9	29.2	3.0	40.2	48.5	88.7	6.3
Idea	0	50.7	50.7	5.3	0	73.7	73.7	5.2
Total	441.6	523.7	965.3		495.3	908.8	1404.1
	31.03.2007				31.03.2008
BSNL	337.4	309.8	647.2	31.3	315.52	407.90	723.42	24.07
MTNL	37.2	29.5	66.7	3.2	36.78	35.34	72.12	2.40
Bharti	18.7	371.4	390.1	18.9	22.83	619.85	642.68	21.39
Reliance	5.7	289.7	295.4	14.3	8.74	457.94	466.68	15.53
Hutch	0	264.4	264.4	12.8		441.26	441.26	14.68
Tata	5.3	160.2	165.5	8.0	7.23	243.30	250.53	8.34
Idea	0	140.1	140.1	6.8		240.02	240.02	7.99
Total	407.7	1660.5	2068.2		394.15	2610.83	3004.98
	31.03.2009				31.03.2010
BSNL	293.46	521.44	814.90	18.96	278.31	694.50	972.81	15.66
MTNL	35.73	44.83	80.56	1.87	34.97	50.94	85.91	1.38
Bharti	27.26	939.23	966.49	22.49	30.67	1276.19	1306.86	21.03
Reliance	11.09	726.66	737.75	17.17	11.77	1024.22	1035.99	16.68
Vodafone		687.69	687.69	16.00		1008.58	1008.58	16.23
Tata	9.19	351.22	360.41	8.39	11.62	659.42	671.04	10.80
Idea		388.89	388.89	9.05		638.24	638.24	10.27
Total	379.64	3917.59	4297.23		369.56	5843.22	6212.78	100.00

NB: Only the first seven companies are mentioned above.

Also, it was assured by the government and management to the workers that another mega tender of 95 million lines will be floated and equipments purchased. But this tender also met the same fate after the Sam Pitroda committee recommended cancellation. As per an agreement on April 20, 2010, at least 30 million lines were to be made available, but this assurance was also dishonoured, adding to the severe capacity crunch.

From the very start, the government was trying to extract maximum amount from the BSNL by any means in order to bleed it. At the time of corporatisation, an imaginary amount of Rs 7,500 crore was shown as loan to the BSNL; this was neither required for BSNL at that time nor actually paid. Interest was calculated at a higher rate and in order to extract more and more interest the BSNL was not allowed to repay the loan for a long period.

During the period 2000-01 to 2008-09, the company has paid about Rs 40,000 crore towards the dividend, licence fee, taxes etc. In addition, sales tax and other taxes were paid to the state governments. The BSNL is also paying the pension contribution of the serving employees, which responsibility was thrust upon it by the government.

The above reasons, as also the stiff competition in telecom sector, resulted in reduction of the BSNL’s revenue and profit since 2007. Thus in 2009-10, for the first time, it posted a loss of Rs 1,822 crore. See Table II given below:

TABLE II

Analysis of Financial Results of BSNL

From October 1, 2000 to March 31, 2010

Financial Year	Income from Services	Income from Other Sources including Interest	Total Income	Employees' Remunerations & Benefits [Including Pension Contribution to DoT]	Administrative & Operating Expenses	License Fee, Spectrum Charges, Depreciation, Tax & Other Expenses [Including Prior Period Adjustments]	Net Profit / Loss	Total Amount Paid to Central Government on a/c of Spectrum, License, Tax, Dividend etc. [Excluding Pension Contribution]
10/2000- 03/2001	11596.66	102.82	11699.48	2070.07	2893.73	5988.63	747.05	1856.25
2001-02	24299.89	2681.80	26981.69	3848.45	3995.79	12825.28	6312.17	3943.13
2002-03	25293.15	599.45	25892.60	6266.03	5465.50	12716.62	1444.45	4895.04
2003-04	31399.34	2519.25	33918.59	6376.63	7111.83	14453.61	5976.52	7050.72
2004-05	33450.04	2640.01	36090.05	8393.02	8051.96	9461.78	10183.29	2377.03
2005-06	36138.94	4037.64	40176.58	7420.63	10496.89	13319.37	8939.69	4370.13
2006-07	34616.21	5098.90	39715.11	7308.97	10916.28	13683.99	7805.87	5019.47
2007-08	32842.30	5204.53	38046.83	8808.91	11110.18	15118.35	3009.39	6349.22
2008-09	30169.42	5642.50	35811.92	11363.23	11377.97	12495.87	574.85	3343.13
2009-10	27913.44	4131.97	32045.41	13455.04	10199.05	10213.97	-1822.65	500.72
TOTAL	287719.39	32658.87	320378.26	75310.98	81619.18	120277.47	43170.63	39704.84

Further, the BSNL was compelled to pay Rs 18,500 crore towards the 3G and Broadband Spectrum charges, higher than any private company has paid, even though it was not allowed to participate in the tender for selecting the circles it required; private companies were allowed.

ANTI-WORKER RECOMMENDATIONS

The main target of corporatisation was the BSNL’s disinvestment and later its privatisation but the workers are aware of this danger. The VSNL was first disinvested and later sold to the Tatas. About 46 per cent shares of MTNL are already sold and disinvestment of another 5 per cent will mean its virtual privatisation. Learning from these experiences, BSNL workers and officers together, under the banner a Joint Action Committee, organised sustained struggles and defeated the government’s move to disinvest BSNL both in 2006 and 2008.

But the danger has with the Sam Pitroda committee recommending 30 per cent disinvestment. The BSNL board has pliantly adopted a resolution to that effect, ignoring the strong protest from the JAC. The unions have outright rejected the offer of shares to workers, knowing well that this is only a bait. They know that disinvestment is the prelude to privatisation, a la the known cases of VSNL, BALCO, Maruti Udyog Ltd, etc. The three lakh workers in BSNL cannot allow it.

The Sam Pitroda committee has recommended retrenchment of one lakh out of three lakh workers through VRS or transfer. BSNL management is trying to implement it, as desired by government, but the strong protest from the unions has so far foiled the move. Any VRS move is completely against the government’s assurances at the time of corporatisation and later in the 2006 agreement.

The government is pressurising the management to share the BSNL’s valuable copper cables and its large number of mobile towers with the private companies for the latter’s services. This unbundling of basic infrastructure is against the BSNL’s interest.

If the BSNL has to survive and advance in the midst of cut-throat competition and price wars, it needs to offer better services through innovative and effective projects to attract new subscribers and keep them satisfied. While projects like Shikhar, ERP etc were started, it has to do much more for success.

The three lakh workforce including qualified engineers and skilled workers is an asset to the BSNL. The management and the workers’ unions must jointly discuss, plan and speedily implement the development programmes to provide the people the best telecom services. The management has to change its mindset accordingly.

BASIC REQUIEMENTS

If implemented in a planned way, the following steps may save the BSNL from the present crisis and enable it to serve the people better.

1) The anti-PSU policy and the discrimination vis-à-vis private companies must end. A positive approach from the government towards PSUs is required.

2) To improve financial viability, the government must implement its assurances on licence fee reimbursement, ADC, USO fund etc. It must be mandatory for the centre, states and PSUs to take telecom and connected services only from the PSUs (BSNL and MTNL), as is done in the case of Air India. Strategic alliances with other PSUs must be ensured. The Rs 18,500 crore paid by BSNL towards 3G and BWA spectrum must be returned.

3) Issue of absorption ITS officers in BSNL must be settled without delay. Deputations for more than 10 years are hindering the BSNL’s development and expansion.

4) Adequate mobile equipments must be procured immediately. Capacity crunch due to cancellation of the 45.5 million lines in 2007 and 95 million lines in 2010 is the major cause of the present crisis.

5) The proposal of disinvestment or IPO must be scrapped.

6) The existing manpower, a great asset, must be effectively utilised and not retrenched through VRS etc.

7) In order to motivate the workers, their genuine demands must be conceded, creating a better and cordial atmosphere. Workers must be taken into confidence in development and connected matters. Daily monitoring is required to improve the services.

The BSNL has got a strong infrastructure throughout the country, both in urban and rural areas, and a dedicated and committed workforce. The common people look to it for satisfactory services. It is still a debt free company. It can overcome the present crisis, grow and develop if suitable remedial actions are taken without delay.

That the BSNL has surpassed all private companies by providing 2.3 million connections out of a total of 12.4 million by September 2010, is encouraging. This progress has to be kept up.

Under the banner of JAC, the three lakh workers are determined to defend the BSNL and save it from the present crisis. The Save BSNL Conventions organised by the JAC in various circles have sent the message to the workers to proactively participate in the efforts to improve services. The ensuing Parliament March on November 15 and the three-day strike from December 1 are intended to compel the government to change its anti-PSU, anti-workers policy, to save the BSNL and improve its services.

Source: www.pd.cpim.org

Vol. XXXIV, No. 44, October 31, 2010