Memorandum to the  Communications Minister

In the general elections, UPA was  defeated and the NDA government was formed with Shri Narendra Modi as Prime Minister. Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad is the new Communications & IT Minister. Immediately on taking over charge, he stated that revival of BSNL and MTNL is his priority. He criticized the earlier government for not attending to the requirement of these two PSUs.

In these circumstances, the Forum in its meeting on 22-05-2014 took the decision to submit a Memorandum to the Communications Minister.

The Memorandum dated 26-05-2014 with the following demands was submitted to the Communications Minister .

1. Honouring of Assurances given to BSNL at the time of Corporatisation
2. Providing Financial Assistance to BSNL
3. Refund of Spectrum charges paid by BSNL to government
4. Formation of new / subsidiary companies disintegrating BSNL to be stopped.
5. Filling up of directors of BSNL Board
6. Pension Contribution on the basis of actual pay instead of the maximum of the payscale.
7. BSNL/MTNL Services to be made mandatory for Central/State/PSU establishments
8. Absorption of ITS officers
9. 78.2% IDA Merger for BSNL Pensioners

The Memorandum was signed by Comrades V.A.N.Namboodiri, Convener, Forum, Suresh Kumar (BSNLMS), Islam Ahamed(NFTE), Prahlad Rai(AIBSNLEA), R.P.Sharma(BSNLOA), Sunil Gautam(SNATTA), R.K.Ram(BTU), Gajendra Kumar(BTEU), R.K.Kohli (NFTBE), P.Abhimanyu(BSNLEU) Jayaprakash (FNTO) and K.Sebastin (SNEA(I).

Passive Infrastructure Agreement between BSNL and Reliance

When it came to the notice of the Forum that an agreement has been made between BSNL and Reliance for passive infrastructure of the BSNL towers, it held a meeting immediately on 18-07-2014 and discussed the issue. The Forum decided to demand the management to immediately provide it with all details of the agreement, after which the Forum will discuss again.

M/s Deloitte Committee Recommendations opposed

In the meanwhile  M/s Deloittee Consultants, which was engaged by the BSNL Management gave its recommendations with regard to the financial viability and revival of BSNL. There was no discussion or consultation with the unions/associations. The recommendations including VRS, combing SSAs, reducing the sanction of staff etc. were completely against the interest of BSNL as well as its workers. The meeting of the Forum held on 04-08-2014 strongly opposed the recommendations and decided to organize agitational programmes for rejecting the same.

1. Protest demonstrations on 12^th August 2014 at Corporate office/Circle/SSAs.
2. A Press statement to be issued against the retrograde recommendations of Deloitte Consultants
3. Meet the Communications Minister on this issue.

The demonstrations in Delhi was held on 21^st August  2014 so as to adjust with the meeting of the Heads of BSNL Circles at that day at Corporate Office. All the programmes were successfully organized. But however, no meeting with the minister could be arranged. (To be continued)

2011

Meeting with Secretary, DOT on the strike issues

A meeting of the JAC  was held with Shri R.Chandrasekhar, Secretary, DOT on 06-02-2011 with regard to the implementation of the agreement made on 2^nd December 2010 at the time of the strike.

Protest Against BRPSE’s retrograde recommendations

In the meanwhile, the BRPSE recommended implementing VRS in BSNL, Reduction of retirement age to 58,  Merger of ITI with BSNL etc. The meeting of the JAC held on 29-03-2011, unanimously decided to organize country wide demonstrations on 5^th April 2011 against these retrograde recommendations. The demonstrations were effectively organised throughout the country.

The Convener, JAC, Com.V.A.N.Namboodiri wrote a detailed letter to Communications Minister Shri Kapil Sibal on 12-04-2011 with regard to the absorption of ITS officers in BSNL. Another letter was written on the same day to the Lok Sabha secretariat submitting our suggestions on the allocation and pricing of telecom licences and spectrum to the Joint Parliament Committee (JPC) appointed for the purpose and seeking a meeting.

In the meantime, NFTE and FNTO stopped attending the Forum meetings. The reason seemed to be the misunderstanding arisen due to the hectic campaign in the Membership Verification of non-executive unions held in the December 2010.

“Customer Delight Month”, “Employees Awareness Week”

The JAC meeting held on 29^th March 2011 decided to observe May 2011 as “Customer Delight Month”, to educate and propagate among the workers the need to attend to the  customers in a far better way so that the services will be better and there will be good feeling among the customers. The financial viability of the company was going down and the service was also not up to the mark. Hence, the programme of “Customer Delight Month”. There was general consensus in the meeting that the ‘government mind set’ should be changed and work culture should be improved. It was also decided to give wide publicity to the decision. In the same way an “Employees Awareness Week” is also to be observed from 24-04-2011. These programmes were effectively observed in many places.

A meeting was held with the JAC by Shri Gopal Das, CMD, BSNL on 20-05-2011 on the implementation of the “Customer Delight Month” in which the JAC gave a number of valuable suggestions. On the basis of these suggestions, the BSNL issued several instructions to the field offices for taking specific actions to improve the services.

The JAC had another round of discussions on 03-05-2011 with the newly appointed CMD Shri R.K.Upadhyay on the suggestions for improvement of the services and implementation of the “Customer Delight Month”. The Directors (HR), (CFQ) and (CA) also attended.

The JAC also decided to organize   JAC meetings in circles which should be attended by the leaders of the Forum/General Secretaries of the JAC affiliated unions. These meetings were effectively held.

The JAC  objected strongly against the action of  DOT arbitrarily taking over the important BSNL buildings in many places and handing over the same to CCAs etc. Resolution was adopted in the meeting on this subject on 27-04-2011 and forwarded to the Prime Minister, Communications Minister, Secretary DOT and CMD BSNL.

ITS Absorption –  Court case

The  meeting of the JAC held on 8^th April 2011 decided to file a court case on the ITS absorption issue. The case will be filed by BSNLEU, SNEA(I) and AIBSNLEA jointly. This was done.

Proposals for a New Telecom Policy 2011 were submitted to the Communications Minister Kapil Sibal on 06-06-2011 as per decision of the JAC.

“Customer Delight Year 2011-12”

The meeting of the Joint Action Council held on 13^th July 2011 discussed in detail about the implementation of the “Customer Delight Month”. The reports received from the General Secretaries showed that while in some centres, the observation has been effective, in many places the workers have not started the programme seriously. However, there have been improvement in almost all places. It was decided to extend the programme and convert it to “Customer Delight Year 2011-2012”. A Circular was issued in the matter signed by the Convener and all the General Secretaries.

The Director(HR) BSNL Shri A.K.Garg  issued a letter on 20^th July 2011 to all the CGMs intimating that the JAC has decided to observe “Customer Delight Year 2011-12” and to ensure that all actions are taken to make the programme a success. (To be continued)