The demands focussed in the 28th February Strike are:

1. Concrete measures to contain price rise 2) Concrete measures for linkage of employment protection with the concession/incentive package offered to the entrepreneurs 3) Strict Enforcement of all basic labour laws without any exception or exemption and stringent punitive measures for violation of labour laws 4) universal social  security cover for the unorganised sector workers without any restriction and creation of a National Social Security Fund with adequate resources in line with the recommendations of NECUS and Parliamentary Standing Committee on Labour  5) Stoppage of disinvestment in Central and State PSUs 6) No contractorisation of work of permanent / perennial nature and payment of wages and benefits to the contract workers at the same rate as available to the regular workers of the industry / establishment 7) Amendment of Minimum Wages Act to ensure universal coverage irrespective of the schedules and fixation of statutory minimum wages at not less than Rs. 1,000/- 8) Remove all ceilings on payment and eligibility of Bonus, Provident Fund: increase the quantum of gratuity 9) Assured Pension for all and 10)Compulsory Registration of trade unions within a period of 45 days and immediate rectification of the ILO Conventions numbers 87 and 98.

These covers the main demands of the workers in almost all sections. These demands should be propagated with details by the leaders at all levels in preparation for the strike on 28th February 2012

The Convention called by the Central Trade Unions to discuss about the one day strike on 28th February 2012 at New Delhi was attended by a large number of Federations / Unions in addition to the Central Trade Unions viz. INTUC, AITUC, CITU, HMS, BMS, AIUTUC, AICCTU, UTUC, TUCC, LPF and SEWA. Shri G.Sanjeeva Reddy, President, INTUC presided and briefed the house about the decision for strike on 28th February and invited delegates to make suggestions for making it a grand success. The leaders of the Federations / Unions including Railways, Defence, Central Government / State government and other public and private sector, addressed the house. On behalf of BSNLEU, Com. P.Abhimanyu and on behalf    of BSNLCCWF Myself spoke and supported the strike decision and assured that the BSNL workers and Casual/contract workers will fully participate in the strike.

Com. Tapan Sen, GS, CITU,  concluding the discussion proposed to hold State level Conventions  to prepare the workers for the strike and to give maximum propaganda amongst the people.

For the BSNL and Casual and Contract workers, extra propaganda and campaign are required since they have already gone on a one day strike recently on 15th December. Effort should also be made to bring all the executive and non-executive associations/unions in this strike. I have already discussed this issue with the Central TU leaders with regard to their affiliated unions in BSNL. I had discussions with the unions in MTNL also.

Let us put all our efforts to make the strike a big success and a warning to the government that if the demands are not settled, further agitations will continue.

The EPF Organisation is probably acting on the direction of the government to reduce the interest rates on EPF. It accepted the demand of the Unions for increase from 8.5% to 9.5% last year , which was opposed and criticised by the employers and big business. These managements and  business concern seem to have succeeded in pressurizing the government to reduce the interest this year.

The Unions have pointed out that the EPFO is not being transparent in that all the details of the savings, interests etc are not revealed. They point out that there are about Rs. 15,000 crore deposits in EPF which are inoperative accounts an on April 2011. The EPF has not revealed how much interest it has got on these accounts. It is  to be added for finalising the EPF interest for the subscribers. Further, when Bank, Post Office interest rates are going up, how the EPF interest can be reduced?

As mentioned earlier, there is clear justification for increasing and not reducing the EPF interest.

The decision of the DOT that provision of  3G services in circles without licences by roaming arrangements between by certain private telecom companies , is  illegal is welcome.  See below how the private telcos have violated the conditions and cheated the government and the people:

Company          No. of circles with spectrum       No of circle provided 3G

1. Bharti Airtel                    13                                          20

2. Vodafone                           9                                          20

3. Idea Cellular                    11                                           19

But it has taken a lot of time for taking the decision. DOT was seen as reluctant to take such a decision. But whether putting a stop to the services is sufficient. Not at all. For violation of laws and cheating the government and the people, penalty should be imposed on these companies, licences should be cancelled and criminal proceedings initiated.

Will the DOT take such a step. The Unions have to demand for such action, which will benefit the BSNL and the country.

As per TRAI statistics for September 2011, the country has reached a teledensity of 75.48%. It is 166.01 % in urban areas which means that a good number of customers are having more than 1 or 2 telephones. It is only 36.40 % in rural area which is very low.

The total Wireline (landline) connections are 3.33 crore out of which 2.36 crore ( 71.08% market share) belong to BSNL.

In the wireless sector Bharti Airtel is the leader with 17.27 crore connections ( 19.78% market share), followed by Reliance with 14.70 crore ( 16.84%), Vodafone with 14.49 crore (16.60%), Idea with 10.01 crore ( 11.47%) and BSNL with 9.57 crore connections( 10.16% market share.)

In total connections Bharti Airtel again leads with 17.61 crore connections ( 19.42%) followed by Reliance with 14.83 crore (!6.36%), Vodafone with 14.49 crore ( 15.99%) BSNL with 11.94 crore ( 13.17%) and Idea with 9.01 crore ( 11.05 %).

In this scenario, BSNL has to work very very hard to increase its connections and improve the share market. In addition to the change in the anti-PSU policy of the government and mismanagement, the workers have to be very hard-working for improvement and better service.

The Chief Labour Commissioner (CLC) has started conciliation in connection with the demands raised by the JAC on the 15th December Strike. The meeting was held today, 22nd December 2011, at the office of the CLC, in Shram Shakti Bhawan. From BSNL, A.N. Rai, Director (HR), N.K.Narang, PGM(SR) and others participated. From the JAC, in addition to myself as the Convener, JAC, General secretaries P.Abhimanyu (BSNLEU), Prahlad Rai (AIBSNLEA), Suresh Kumar (BSNLMS) and  other leaders participated. DOT was  represented by Jt.DDG.

The JAC leaders clearly explained their demands with full justification. BSNL management gave its views in the matter. The meeting was inconclusive. The next meeting will be held at 11.00 hours on 31st January 2011.

The meeting had its significance since the conciliation was upgraded from the RLC to CLC, which was demanded by the JAC. Since the issues are all India based, the conciliation was with CLC earlier, which was transferred to RLC later. Other requests of the JAC that the BSNL should be represented by officer/s authorised to take decisions and that DOT also should be represented since issues where DOT has to take decisions are also accepted and implemented by today’s meeting.

The Delhi High Court has confirmed the 3 years imprisonment of Sukh Ram, former Communications Minister, in the case of undue favour shown to a private company, in awarding contract for supply of telecom equipment, while he was the Minister. Ms. Runu Ghosh, former DDG in DOT as also the Managing Director of Advanced Radio Masts, P.Rama Rao were convicted jail sentences in the same case. The High Court has directed all the  three to surrender before the trial court to serve their sentences.

It is to be noted that since the introduction of the Neo-liberal policies and so called Reforms in India, the telecom sector has been witness to continuous scams and corrupt practices.

At present out of the 35 lakh subscribing to EPF,  14 lakh are getting pension of less than Rs. 500. This is less than the pension given to the senior citizens etc in states like Kerala, with out any contributions. The Central Trade Unions have already put a strong demand to increase the minimum pension to Rs.1,000/- This is fully justified.  The plea  of the employers and the government that that 0.63 % will have to be paid in addition to the contribution of 8.33% is not acceptable to the workers. However, if  any extra amount has to be paid, it should be paid by the employers and the government.

In the same way, the interest rate of the present 9.5% should be increased for EPF account, the unions have demanded. The government and the employers want to reduce it. This also is not acceptable to the workers.

The meeting of Central Board of Trustees of EPFO tomorrow has to take a favourable decision, increasing both the Minimum Pension and Interest Rate.

the 2 G scam special court has now charge sheeted a further eight  companies / top bosses in connection with the 2 g Scam. They are Ravi Kant Ruia (Essar Group), Anushman Ruia (Essar ), Vikas Saraf (Essar), Ms Kiran Khaitan (Loop Telecom), I.P.Khaitan and three companies viz. Loop Telecom Private Ltd., Loop Mobile India Ltd and Essar Teleholdings Ltd.

Immediate fall out of the same was that Ravi Kant Ruia was  compelled to resign from the post of Chairman of the company.

It is yet to be seen how many heads will roll in 2 G scam.

We are agressively organising and running unions in BSNL and MTNL, the public sector telecom companies. During the last more than 15 years many private sector companies have started functioning in telecom sector and there are thousands of workers employed in these companies. Are there any unions for these workers? I am not aware. Is it not the responsibility of  organised telecom workers to help the private sector workers to form their unions. I think it is necessary. Of course, it is not easy since the private managements never welcome formation of unions in their companies as is evident from the case of Maruti, Hyundai etc. Yes, there may be objection and resistance from the managements, but union is most necessary to defend the interests of the workers.

We have t think about the issue of formation of unions in private telecom companies with out further delay.