Thaindian News

New Delhi, Aug 19 (IANS) State-run telecom major Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has said a two-day strike by its employees starting Wednesday would not affect its operations.
“BSNL has made adequate arrangements to ensure that telecom services rendered to our esteemed customers remain uninterrupted,” a company statement said Wednesday.

Around 150,000 workers are to participate in the two-day strike, demanding a higher wage revision.

According to officials of BSNL Employees Union, the company management has offered 30 percent wage revision to workers, while higher officials have received 60-70 percent hike.

Apart from the higher wage hike, the other demands are regularisation of around 4,000 casual contract labourers and implementation of a promotion policy.

Meanwhile, an indefinite strike by around 10,000 engineers at BSNL demanding absorption of officers who were deputed from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) entered its second day Wednesday.

BSNL said the issue of absorption of group A officers was under active consideration of the government and would likely be finalised soon.

“The other demand of the executives relate to human resource policies of BSNL, which has been finalised after due consultation with all the stake holders and any change therein is likely to affect other section of executives,” the company said in the release.

“The position has been made clear to workers’ representatives and BSNL management had offered to set up an appropriate mechanism to settle the issue. However, the offer has been rejected and they have proceeded on agitation, which is totally unjustified,” it added.

Also, wage revision of non-executive staff is under consideration, the company said.

BSNL has about 245,000 non-executive employees.

The company has also set up control room here and also at state and district levels to constantly monitor the situation.