Limit for EPF coverage will be reduced from 20 to 10 persons

In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha on 23rd July, MoS for Labour and Employment, Shri Vishnu Deo Sai has sated that there is a proposal to reduce limit from 20 persons to 10 for coverage under the EPF Rules.  However, the time frame has not been announced.

Change of Designations Committee

A meeting of the ‘Change of Designations Committee’ in BSNL was held today, 23rd July.  The Official side agreed for the change of designations of RM to Telecom Assistant and TM to Telecom Technician. The designation for Sr.TOA and TTA are yet to be finalised since the designations suggested by the staff side were not accepted by the management. Discussions will continue to sort out the issue. Coms. P.Abhimanyu, V.A.N.Namboodiri and Animesh Mitra participated from BSNLEU.

BCPC Leaders Meet VII Central Pay Commission

As per the invitation of the VII Central Pay Commission, the leaders of the Bharat Central Pensioners Confederation (BCPC), Coms. Maheswari, President, S.K.Vyas, Secretary General, V.A.N.Namboodiri, DY.SG(HQ), R.L.Bhattacharjee and others met the VII CPC today, 23rd July and presented in detail the demands of the Central and BSNL Pensioners. They demanded the abolition of the NPS and to include all new employees in the old pension scheme, 67% of pay as Pension, the minimum pay scale as minimum pension, merger of DA with pay, Interim Relief, CGHS to be available to the Postal employees etc. which are all included in the memorandum. Com.V.A.N.Namboodiri brought to the notice of the CPC about the difficulties experienced by the BSNL absorbed DOT employees with regard to Pension Revision and demanded that the Government should grant Pension Revision on the the basis of the BSNL wages without any hindrance. The issue of 78.2% IDA pension revision and the need for early resolving were also mentioned.

The  VII Central Pay Commission Members with Chairman Justice Shri Ashok Kumar Mathur and all other members were present. Though the meeting was scheduled for 45 minutes, discussion took place for about one and half hours. The Commission heard the delegation keenly and put many questions which were answered effectively.

Standing Committee Meeting held on 22nd July 2014

The Standing Committee Meeting of the BSNL National Council was held today, 22nd july 2014 to review about the stage of issues discussed in the National Council. Coms. P.Abhimanyu, Staff Side Secretary, V.A.N.Namboodiri and Animesh Mitra participated from BSNLEU.

All the pending issues were discussed. A brief report of the same will be posted in the BSNLEU website.

EPFO creates record in settlement of cases

The Employees Provident Fund Organisation has created record in settling the cases. It settled 90.5 lakh in 2011-12, 111.42 lakh in 2012-13, 123.36 lakh in 2013-14 and 37.41 lakh in the present financial year till July 2014.

This was stated by Minister of State for labour Shri Vishnu Deo Sai to a reply in the Lok Sabha. But however, it is not reported, how many cases are pending settlement.

Spectrum Sharing allowed – TRAI

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has recommended to allow sharing of the spectrum between two operators in the same circle. The spectrum should be of the same bandwidth. This will benefit the private telecom operators in a big way.

Meeting with CMD BSNL on Casual Contract Labour issues.

Com.V.A.N.Namboodiri, President BSNLEU and BSNLCCWF, Com.P.Abhimanyu, General Secretary BSNLEU and Vice-President BSNLCCWF, Com.Tapas Ghosh Secretary General, BSNLCCWF and Com.Animesh Mitra, Dy. Secretary General BSNLEU and Vice-President BSNLCCWF met shri A.N.Rai, CMD BSNL, and discussed about the major issues of the casual and contract workers, including regularisation of casual and contract workers, Payment of Minimum of the BSNL  payscale to TSM and Casual workers, Payment of minimum wages to  contract workers, implementation of EPF and ESI Schemes and other connected matters. The unions leaders conveyed their unhappiness in the undue delay in settling the issues. The question of eligibility for the casual workers to appear for the casual labour was also discussed. With regard to the non-payment of minimum wages, CMD asked the union representatives to to point out some of the SSAs, where these are not implemented, so that he can check the fact. The CMD heard the union service patiently and assured to consider the issues.

The Union leaders also pointed out the undue delay in payment of GPF advances, causing much difficulties to the concerned staff. CMD assured to look in to the matter.

7th CPC INVITES BCPC SECRETARY GENERAL FOR PRELIMINARY INTERACTION

 

7th Pay Commission begins preliminary interaction with Pensioners Organisations
7th CPC INVITES BCPC SECRETARY GENERAL & BPS SECRETARY GENERAL FOR PRELIMINARY INTERACTION

The 7th CPC has invited Comrade S.K.Vyas Secretary General BCPC and Comrade S.C.Maheswari Secretary General BPS for a preliminary interaction on 23rd July, 2014, as the Pay Commission has commenced the exercise of seeking views of various stakeholders on its terms of reference.

Com.V.A.N.Namboodiri, Dy.Secretary General (HQ) will also be participating in the meeting.

Priority to improve BSNL Functioning – Minister

The central government Monday said the condition of telecom PSU BSNL “was not very healthy” and it was giving priority to improve its functioning.

Replying to supplementaries in the Lok Sabha, Communications and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the government was giving priority to improve functioning of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL).

“The condition of BSNL is not very healthy at all. It is priority area of government to improve the functioning of BSNL. There is need for a lot of improvement,” he said.

Besides, the minister said the government was concerned about the coverage and quality of telecommunication services in left wing extremism affected states.

A proposal to install mobile towers at 1,836 locations in those states with funding support from universal service obligation fund (USOF) was approved, he added.

Answering a query about health hazards from radiation linked to mobile towers and phones, Ravi Shankar Prasad said various studies were conducted but they did not show any reason to worry.(Courtesy: Business Standard)