As decided in the meeting of the Forum held on 4th August, the Forum has finalised the letter to Communications Minister seeking him to reject the report of the Consultant M/s Deloitte since it is neither beneficial to BSNL nor to the workers. The letter will be signed by the unions/associations and sent to the Minister. The letter is given below:

FORUM OF BSNL UNIONS / ASSOCIATIONS
D-7, Telegraph Place, Gole Market, New Delhi – 110 001.
Forum/GL 05.08.2014

To

Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad,
Hon’ble Minister for Communications & IT,
Government of India
20, Ashoka Road, Sanchar Bhawan,
New Delhi – 110 001

Respected Sir,

Sub: – Recommendations of M/s Deloittee consultants on restructuring, financial viability and revival of BSNL – reg.

On behalf of the Forum of BSNL Unions / Associations representing the BSNL employees, we would like to bring to your kind notice about the report of the M/s Deloittee consultants, which if implemented, will seriously and adversely affect BSNL services and it’s employees.

The consultant M/s Deloittee was appointed by BSNL Management to improve the financial viability and revival of BSNL. Neither the Unions / Associations of employees, who are important stake holders of the Company, have been informed about the appointment of consultant, nor were called to give their opinions or suggestions. This is completely different from the past, when the opinion / suggestions were sought from the Unions / Associations and issues presented. It is not understood why the Unions / Associations are bye-passed.

A perusal of the report makes it clear, that the intention is to retrench more than 70,000 Non-Executive workers, introduce contract engagement of executives, deny career progression to Non-Executives and so on. The basis on which the consultants have proposed the report is that the loss for BSNL is due to the large wage bill. The assumption is completely baseless.

It can be seen from the annual reports that the wages of employees have not increased for the last few years, but has reduced marginally. The point that wage bill has increased to 50% of the revenue is solely due to the fact that the Revenue has come down from about Rs.40,000 a year to Rs.26,000 or so due to non-procurement of equipment like mobile lines, cables, telephone instruments, broadband modem, drop wire etc. as also inefficient management. Had the revenue increased to Rs.50,000 to Rs.60,000 or so, the % of wage bill would have reduced to 25% or less.

Instead of procuring equipment and streamlining the organisation, the consultant has suggested to reduce the present 330 + SSAs to a mere 167, concentrating powers at circle level, closure of telecom factories etc. which are completely counter productive. The govt.’s social obligation to provide connection in rural and remote areas seems to be completely forgotten.

In these circumstances, the Forum of BSNL Unions / Associations strongly oppose the M/s Deloittee report. We request the Communications Minister to ensure that the anti-BSNL, anti-worker report is rejected and that fruitful discussions are held with the Unions / Associations to improve financial viability and a better service to the people.

Thanking you,

Yours Sincerely,