BSNL Crisis Continues, Over 1.68 Lakh Employees Yet to Receive Salary

In an earlier post I wrote about how BSNL is cutting cost by reducing employee benefits and giving the option of VRS to the employees. These are symptoms of an impending disaster; a self made disaster. With a work force four times that of any private telecom operator it is natural that BSNL is making losses on yearly basis. Even with the huge workforce - which has become a liability instead of asset - BSNL provides a poor service which is why it has the lowest market share among all telecom operator.

Poor Work Culture: The huge workforce and low market share imply a poor work culture at the organisation. The work is not done effeciently which results in a poor network availability and customer support. These two combined result in a low market share. To compensate for the poor efficiency more personnel are hired which eat up the profit. It seems BSNL neither has long term vision or short term goals. This company is going the RCOM way and sooner than later will go bankrupt.

For the first time in 18 years, full-time BSNL employees haven’t received their salaries for the month of February, which they were supposed to get on the 28th of last month. On the other hand, contractual employees are in a worse situation in some circles, as they haven’t received their salaries for the last 3 months, and while others haven’t received a penny since the last 6 months.

The employees’ union has written to telecom minister Manoj Sinha urging that the government release funds to the company so it can pay the salaries as well as revive the ailing firm. They have also been reportedly holding demonstrations.

According to a report by Financial Express, BSNL officials said that the company has started paying February salaries now to staff in Kerala, J&K, Odisha and the corporate office. The official said further added saying that as and when the income is generated, salaries will be paid to the staff. As the government has not given any financial support, the salaries are being delayed.

BSNL is allowed to take loan only for capital expenditure in accordance with the rules laid by the Department of Telecom (DoT). The report further adds saying that BSNL has debt of Rs 13,900 crore, Airtel has debt of Rs 1.13 lakh crore while Vodafone has debt of Rs 1.2 lakh crore.

Sources : https://www.news18.com/news/tech/bsnl-crisis-continues-over-1-68-lakh-employees-yet-to-receive-salary-2065127.html