Today I got the opportunity to interact with one of the top telecom union leaders of Bangladesh. In the morning, I got a call from Brother Md.Mozammel Haque Siddikki, Joint Secretary General of the Bangladesh T&T Sramik Karmachari Federal Union – CBA, stating that he is in Delhi and would like to meet me. Accordingly, I went to the Hotel Surya in the New Friends Colony to meet him. We had interaction for about two hours over a cup of tea or rather two cups of tea.

Brother Siddikki  has come to Delhi as part of a team of the Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited (BTCL) to have some discussions with the managements of BSNL and MTNL on certain important issues. He is a Sub-Asst. Engineer, in BTCL.  The team held discussions with the MTNL and BSNL on 15th December.

Just like in India, the Telecommunications Department in Bangladesh was corporatised, but in to three corporations. One is  BTCL, which is the landline company. Another company is the Bangladesh Submarine Cable co. Ltd, which is a cable company. And the third is the Teletalk Bangladesh Lt. which is the mobile company. In the BTCL there are about 10,000 regular employees and about 4000 casual employees. He was interested to know how the pension of the BSNL absorbed employees is stipulated. I told him about the Rule-37A as well as the pension revision of pre-2006 absorbees, achieved through sustained struggles. Other issues also were discussed. We agreed to be continuous contact and co-ordination.

It was a pleasant meeting. I hope the connection between BSNLEU and the Bangladesh Union will continue.