Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) employees have received a very firm message from the telecom minister Ashwini Vaishnaw. The message from Vaishnaw comes at the right time because BSNL needs to buckle up and move fast with services to put itself in a winning position. According to a TNN report, Vaishnaw has told BSNL employees to let go of the 'Sarkari' attitude or go home packing. There are over 62,000 employees in the state-run telco who have been warned about not performing well. Vaishnaw's message is pretty clear about the fact that if the employees don't perform well, they will be sent home packing.
MTNL Does Not Have Any Future
For MTNL, Vaishnaw was pretty bold to say that it does not have any future. After leading the new bailout package for BSNL, Vaishnaw met with the senior management of BSNL and asked the staff to become fiercely competitive. This is actually important in order to stand a chance to compete with the private telcos, including Airtel and Jio.
Vaishnaw said that employees who are not working can take VRS (voluntary retirement scheme) and go home. In case the employees show any resistance to taking the VRS, the minister said that they would use 56J (a rule used for premature retirement). Thus, the employees really need to perform well or go home.
BSNL has been behind private telcos in performance, and many have pointed toward the lazy approach of the employees for this. This message from Vaishnaw has come at the right time as the transition phase to 4G is happening for the telco and there is also the revival package of Rs 1.64 lakh crore. It will be interesting to see whether BSNL employees actually take this message in the right manner intended or not. The employees have also accused the government on several turns for not helping in the right manner.
