As the government is moving ahead with the merger of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL), a forum of BSNL employee associations is urging the government to address legacy issues related to business sustainability, human resources (HR), salary discrepancies, and pensions before proceeding with the merger.
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The employee associations have issued a statement in response to the government's renewed efforts to merge its telecom operators with the aim of rationalising costs and competing with private players, according to a report by Financial Express.
"We are of the view that overburdening BSNL with further liability in the name of taking over operations of MTNL will not be a prudent move unless the government takes care of the gap in revenue and expenditure for a minimum period of 10 years and indemnifies BSNL against any such loss," the Report cited the forum's letter to telecom minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, telecom secretary K Rajaraman and BSNL CMD PK Purwar.
The employee forum is of the view that without fixing the problems, the proposed merger will further complicate the issues. As per an earlier report, the merger of BSNL and MTNL is expected to take around two years. The proposal is to merge the operational business of MTNL with BSNL without any liabilities.
BSNL's staff wants their salaries to be on par with MTNL employees, which is understood to be around 10-20% higher than BSNL employees. The forum is opposing the merger on conditions of cold-hearted treatment of lowering the scale of pay, degrading the status of employees and other such issues.
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"Hence, we oppose this merger on such retrograde terms and instead feel that BSNL executives' pay and pension should be brought at par with MTNL," the forum added, according to the Report.
The merger between BSNL and MTNL is deemed crucial as BSNL currently lacks a presence in the Delhi and Mumbai areas. Furthermore, employee unions contend that due to MTNL's financial situation, it would be more advantageous for BSNL to establish a new network rather than acquire MTNL's network to offer services.
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"The committee for merger of MTNL and BSNL has been formed many months back, and despite our repeated requests to have deliberation with representatives of employees before finalisation of any such proposal, no such deliberations were ever held with representatives of any union or association on this," quoted the report citing the response from employee forum.
In July 2022, the Cabinet approved a revival package worth Rs 1.64 lakh crore to aid the struggling BSNL and MTNL. This was supplementary to the Rs 69,000 crore rescue plan that was implemented in 2019.
