BSNL Employees Union – Struggles, Achievements and Future Tasks

22^nd March 2013 is the 12^th Birth Anniversary of BSNL Employees Union, the mighty organisation of the BSNL workers.  It was formed at Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, in the National Convention of Telecom Employees held on 21-22 March 2001 in the presence of late Com. E.Balanandan, President, CITU, one of the beloved leaders of the working class.

P&T Workers have been unionised since the early part of the 20th century. It was not easy to organise the government employees under the British imperialist rule. It was with great courage and personal sacrifice that Babu Tarapada and Henry Barton organised Postal and Telegraph workers respectively.  Despite much harassment and victimisation the unions strengthened, organised struggles and achieved demands. V.G.Dalvi organised the Postal Union in the second decade.

The Postmen strike of 1946, which is also treated as part of the Independence struggle, was historic in all sense. Although started on 11^th July 1946 as a Postmen strike, within two weeks the entire P&T workers became part of the struggle and also it got support from the freedom movement. 14 out of the total 16 demands could be achieved by the end of the successful strike. This strike gave a new dimension to the movement and the need for unity of the P&T workers was instilled in the mind of the leaders and the workers.

Consequently, the leaders of the existing unions discussed and the Union of P&T Workers (UPTW) was formed in 1947 by merger. In 1954, the National Federation of P&T Employees (NFPTE) was formed by realignment by merging all the existing unions in to 9 All India Unions federated with NFPTE at the apex.    Com.  B.N.Ghosh, popularly called Dada Ghosh, was the first Secretary General of the united organisation.

The 5 days glorious strike of 1960 of the Central government employees was brutally supressed by the central government by treating it as a ‘Civil Rebellion’ and imposing the draconian ‘Essential Service Maintenance Ordinance’(ESMO), putting thousands of employees in jail and also dismissing, suspending, terminating and victimising tens of thousands of employees. But his could not deter the  Central Government employees movement from going on a successful one day token strike on 19^th September 1968 facing similar victimisation, arrests and confinement.

As a result of these struggles, the government was compelled to appoint II and III Central Pay Commissions and revise the wages of the employees, formulate rules for grant of dearness allowance when the cost of living index increases etc.  In the 1974 strike for Bonus in which the railway workers participated in lakhs and were brutally victimised, in which a part of the P&T employees under the leadership of Com.K.G.Bose participated, though supressed, resulted in the grant of Bonus in 1978 after the Janatha Government was formed at the centre.

The difference in NFPTE started mainly on the approach to the issues as also the method to be adopted. One section of the leadership was of the opinion that the government policies need not be opposed but should try to settle the demands through negotiations and compromise only. The other section led by Com. K.G.Bose, N.J.Iyer, Adinarayana and others wanted to organise struggles, if the demands are not settled by the government. In the stiff contest in elections in NFPTE in 1970, the KG Bose group was elected. But the group led by Com. O.P.Gupta  floated a parallel list in the next Federal Council and with the connivance of the Minister and got recognition. Two NFPTEs  functioned for a few years, but the urge for unity resulted in bringing both the groups together and unity was restored by 1976.

Consequent to the bifurcation of the P&T Department in to Postal and Telecommunications  in 1985, NFPTE was  bifurcated in to NFPE and NFTE. The revisionists led by Com. O.P.Gupta were in the leadership of NFTE. Differences cropped up in the organisation on issues as well as the compromise being made by the leadership including agreement on ban on creation of posts, surrendering posts for promotion, restructure etc. As a result, some of the office-bearers in the unions affiliated to NFTE including Coms. Moni Bose, V.A.N.Namboodiri, M.N.Reddy and  J.Renganathan resigned from the office bearer posts protesting against the wrong line of the leadership. In the Bhopal All India Conference of the All India Telecom Employees Union Class III, contest took place and OPG leadership was defeated and Coms.V.A.N.Namboodiri and Moni Bose were elected as President and General Secretary respectively with other office bearers. Though the defeat was gracefully accepted by OPG, after six months, in connivance with the DOT, a dispute was created. The two groups of the union continued functioning separately.

After the collapse of the USSR, the global political situation changed. The imperialists led by US started dictating and imposing their decisions on the underdeveloped and developing countries. The economic and foreign policies of Indian government also changed. Instead of the socialist pattern of society, the shift started towards capitalist line. The government started implementing the neo-liberalisation policy of Liberalisation, Privatisation and globalisation(LPG). The PSUs, called the ‘Temples of Modern India’ by the first Prime Minister of the country,  Jawaharlal Nehru, was treated under the new dispension, as the cemeteries of India. PSUs were disinvested and privatised by handing over the same to private companies for paltry sums. Privatisation became the important mantra of the government.

The neo-liberalisation policy has its impact on the telecommunications also.  Under the New Telecom Policy 1995, for the first time, private telecom companies were formed and the government granted them licence to provide mobile service, while denying the same to the Department of telecom. This was a starting point of discrimination against DOT and later MTNL and BSNL., the telecom PSUs formed as per the new policy of the government.

The unions led by Coms. Moni Bose, V.A.N.Namboodiri, P.S.Raman Kutty, Pabitra Chakroborty and others formed a National Action Committee and organised many struggles against the anti-worker policies and decisions of the government. They participated in all the struggles organised by the central trade unions on the demands of the common workers. They also organised two strikes against the proposal of the government to form a telecom corporation carving out of the Department of Telecom. NFTE  kept away from these struggles.

Despite opposition from the workers and their unions, BSNL was formed on 1^st October 2000. The corporatisation was made easy after the revisionist leadership of NFTE agreed for the same on certain assurance like government pension etc.

It was the unions which formed the National Action Committee and organised many struggles against neo-liberalisation and privatisation before and in 2000, that called for the National Telecom Convention at Visakhapatnam on 21-22 March 2001. And as stated earlier, BSNL Employees Union with Com. J.N.Mishra  as President, V.A.N.Namboodiri as General secretary and P.S.Raman Kutty as Dy. General Secretary with other office bearers were elected unanimously. Seven unions merged together to form the new union. Thus BSNL Employees Union was born on 22^nd March 2001 at the Vishakhapatnam Convention/Conference.

BSNL Employees Union Marches Ahead_{­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­}

Formation of BSNL Employees Union was a milestone in the Telecom trade Union movement. It carried with it the progressive and pro-worker tradition and heritage. The formation took place in the presence of trade union stalwarts like Com. E.Balanandan, President of CITU, Com. Adinarayana, Secretary General of NFPE, Com. N.M.Sundaram, General Secretary of the All India Insurance Employees Association, Sisir Bhattacharjee, the senior most leader of NFPTE and many other such leaders. Leaders of all the seven unions which merged together to form the new union were elected to the CHQ office-bearer posts.

While three federations viz. NFTE, FNTO and BTEF with their affiliated unions were recognised in DOT, the Code of Discipline accepted by the central trade unions decades back, stipulated for the recognition of only the majority union in the industry. A meeting was conducted by the BSNL management to finalise the method of electing the recognised/representative union. While NFTE insisted for recognition of only one union and that through check-off system, BSNLEU demanded voting by secret ballot and representation on proportionate basis. After detailed discussion with all the unions it was decided to conduct the election through secret ballot based on the Code of Discipline. It was however felt at that time that at least those unions which get more than 15% votes will be given recognition as was being the practice in DOT.

The election or Membership Verification process was conducted with the co-operation of all the unions without any hitch. NFTE got the first position with 105209 votes and 35.25% of the total votes, BSNLEU with 89,496 with 29.99% and FNTO with 40,215 and 14.54%. Being the unions with more than 15 %, both NFTE and BSNLEU were expected to be recognised, but on the insistence of NFTE that only one union is to be recognised as per the Code of Discipline, only NFTE was recognised, though they got only 35%, far below the majority point of 50%.

After the two years period of recognition, the II Membership Verification was conducted in December 2004. While almost all the unions argued for proportionate representation, NFTE firmly opposed and hence there was no change. After the verification BSNLEU was recognised since it got  majority votes viz. 139,827 votes with 49.25 %. NFTE got de-recognised, falling in the self-made trap of ‘one union recognition’. Since then till now, BSNL Employees Union have won in all the four verifications with good majority and continues as the sole recognised and representative union.

Wage Revision (Conversion from CDA to IDA scales)

On the demand of the unions the BSNL management started negotiations for wage revision for converting the CDA in to IDA scales. Since no union was recognised before the first membership verification, all the registered unions participated in the negotiations. The Memorandum on the demands of the wage revision was prepared by Com. V.A.N.Namboodiri, General Secretary of BSNL Employees Union, which was adopted by all the unions after serious discussion and modification. The negotiation with management was protracted, but within a few months agreement was reached and wage revision orders issued. All employees got a good wage hike as per the wage revision with effect from 01-10-2000, the date on which BSNL was formed.

Wage Revision from 01-01-2007

Within 7 years, another wage revision came due to the BSNL Employees. This is because the wage  revision for PSU employees as a whole became due in 2007, after the last revision was from 01-01-1997. Being the recognised union, BSNLEU took the initiative for the same in 2007 itself. NFTE and FNTO, the second and third unions were requested by BSNLEU to co-operate in preparing the demands and finalising the memorandum as also to participate in the discussions. However both of them rejected the offer and kept away from the process of negotiation. In addition, while hard bargaining was going on between the recognised union and the management, these unions told the management that they are willing to accept whatever has been offered by the management. But BSNLEU continued with the hard negotiation and gained many benefits, one after another. Agitational programmes were also organised to compel the management to concede the demands. NFTE and FNTO kept away from these programmes.

At last, the Wage Agreement was signed on 7^th May 2010.  With 30% fitment, 3% increment rates etc. the wage revision resulted in good hike, which was well appreciated by the workers. Neither during the DOT nor in the CDA to IDA revision in BSNL, could the employees get such a wage revision so far. It is also to be remembered that the agreement was signed when the BSNL has already started posting loss.

Non-Executive Promotion Policy (NEPP)

The Non-Executives in BSNL (Group C & D in DOT), had only two promotions, OTBP after 16 years and BCR after 26 years. The discrimination between executives and non-executives has been continuing for years together, but the then recognised unions kept silent on the issue, even during the period when NFTE was recognised in BSNL from 2002 to 2004. In fact, NFTE made an agreement with the BSNL management for continuing the OTBT-BCR promotions till next wage revision ie. till 2007.

As soon as BSNLEU got recognition in December 2004, it demanded for 5 time-bound promotions for all non-executives without any discrimination after every eight years of service.  The management took a completely negative attitude in the matter. However, after serious negotiations and agitations an agreement was made on 30-10-2008.

The NEPP was a great step forwards with regard to the promotion of non-executives, who were completely discriminated for many decades. The implementation of the NEPP resulted in much financial advancement for the workers.

Due to both the Wage Revision and the NEPP, the workers got substantial increase in the salary. The wage bill of the company increased almost double after the wage revision.

The LIC Group Insurance Scheme for BSNL employees, The Loan Scheme through Public Sector Banks etc.  initiated and finalised based on the demands of BSNL Employees Union benefitted the workers in a good way. Change of designations of major cadres demanded by the Union is being discussed and the change for two cadres, Regular Mazdoor and Telecom Mechanic are already agreed

During the last 8 years of recognition, many issues have been taken up by the union and settled, which is much appreciated by the workers.

No to Disinvestment, No to VRS

Two main targets of the government and Management were to disinvest and later privatise BSNL as per the neo-liberal policy of the government. Through sustained agitations under the auspices of the Joint Forum/Joint Action Committee/Forum of BSNL Unions/Associations, we were able to defeat all the three attempts of the management to disinvest BSNL.

In the same way the decision of the management to retrench workers through VRS was defeated. NFTE, when it was recognised made an agreement with the management in 2004 for retrenching 50,000 workers through VRS. Immediately after getting recognition BSNLEU pressurised the management and got the decision cancelled. Two other attempts of the management for implementation of VRS were also got defeated. The pivotal role taken by BSNLEU in co-ordinating all the unions was appreciated by the workers. Because of the strong stand on BSNLEU and joint action by the total unions/associations, the government could not implement its decision on both disinvestment and VRS.

Save BSNL, improve services

BSNL has posted loss for three years. It will be increased in 2012-13. For the first  seven years BSNL was having good profit. It is due to the wrong and anti-PSU policy of the government that this magnificent company was put to loss. All the assurances of assistance by government given at the time of formation of BSNL, have been broken by government after a few years. The surplus cash balance of the company which stood at Rs.40,000 crore was taken away by the government in the name of a notional loan of Rs.7,500 crore, 2G and BWA spectrum charges of Rs. 18,500 crore, interest on notional loan etc.

Second reason for the downfall is the inefficient management. The responsibility of the management is to find out ways and means to expand and improve the services. The management has been completely negative in this respect. It failed to procure equipment like mobile lines, cables, telephone instruments, Broadband modems etc. which were required for expansion. On the contrary it cancelled even the proposed tenders for equipment in the last moment. The fact that most of the top management who are ITS officers are on deputation from government and not absorbed in BSNL is a major set back for the efficient functioning of the management.

How to improve the situation is the most important question before the workers. On the initiative of BSNLEU, the Joint Action Committee/ Forum of BSNL Unions, Associations have started the ‘Subscriber Delight’ programme through which the service to the people is to be improved and the management is compelled to fulfil their responsibilities to expand the services. This is not a temporary or jerk-knee action, but a sustained struggle to save BSNL and its workers. BSNLEU is committed to this revolutionary task, which it will try to fulfil with the support of all concerned.

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