BSNL employees, posted in the Kashmir Valley, have been extended with certain concessions, at par with the Central Government employees. However, period for which these concessions were granted has got expired. Now, the DoP&T has issued letter, granting extension of time for these concessions. The DoT has also endorsed this letter. BSNL Management has to implement this letter of the DoP&T. Com.P.Abhimanyu, GS, met Shri Sourabh Thyagi,GM(Estt.) today and requested him to endorse the DoP&T letter to the CGM,J&K circle. He handed over BSNLEU’s letter on this. The GM(Estt.) assured to do the needful.

On receiving the letter from BSNL CO, rejecting the demand of BSNLEU to conduct the JE LICE as an off line exam, BSNLEU has once again written to the Corporate Office, justifying it’s demand for an off line exam for the JE LICE.

The representatives of BSNLEU, who met the GM (FP) today, insisted for the implementation of the amendments to the JAO RR, as has already been demanded by BSNLEU. The Union has demanded the following amendments:- 

• Employees who have completed 5 years of requisite qualification should be allowed to appear in the JAO LICE, without insisting for 5 years of service in the 9020 pay scale;
• Upper age limit should be increased from 53 years to 55 years.
• The cut off date should be 1st July, instead of 1st January.

The GM(FP) who has recently taken over the charge of this portfolio,  assured to look into this and to do the needful.

The CHQ  has decided to hold a meeting of the Central Secretariat of the Union. The meeting will be held on 15.06.2020, through video conferencing. Com.Animesh Mitra, President, will preside over the meeting. The notification for the meeting has been issued.

The BSNL Management has already sent a proposal to the Recognised Unions, for abolishing the Civil / Electrical Local Councils. This issue was elaborately discussed in the Agartala CEC meeting of BSNLEU. Based on that deliberation BSNLEU representatives, who met Shri A.M.Gupta, GM(SR) today, firmly told that separate Local Councils for Civil / Electrical wings should continue, till the Civil / Electrical administrations are fully merged with the SSA administrations. The GM(SR) assured that the view of BSNLEU would be duly considered.

The Hon’ble CAT, Hyderabad Bench, has given judgement that officials who directly obtained degree, without completing 10+2 qualification, should also be permitted to appear in the JE LICE. This judgement is already implemented in the last JE LICE, in respect of the officials for whom the judgement was given. BSNLEU has written to the BSNL Management, demanding that this order of the Hon’ble CAT should be implemented for future JE LICEs also.  

It has been brought to the notice of the CHQ of BSNLEU that, the candidates who appeared in the JTO LICE, held on 26.05.2019, have faced certain difficulties. As usual, in this LICE also, there are many out of syllabus questions and wrong / ambiguous answers. Further, it is reported that the standard of the questions is very high. Hence, BSNLEU has written to the CMD BSNL demanding full marks for the wrong questions, questions which are out of syllabus and questions with wrong / ambiguous and multiple answers. BSNLEU has also demanded granting of marks for the questions which are beyond the Diploma Engineering standard.

Management has prepared the draft minutes of the meeting of the Joint Committee on Change of Designations of the Non-Executives, that was held on 26.09.2017. In that minutes, it is stated that the duties and responsibilities of the Non-Executives can be changed after change of designations. It is also mentioned in the draft minutes that this was mutually agreed to by, both the Management and Staff Side. Such a discussion has not at all taken place in the Joint Committee meeting, and the Staff Side has not agreed for any change in duties and responsibilities, after change of designations. BSNLEU has written to the GM (Restg.) protesting against this unfair practice of the Management Side.

So far as Punjab circle is concerned, a lot of court cases are going on in the matter of JTO LICE. Results of the JTO LICEs held in December, 2016 and May, 2019 have not been declared. Further, candidates qualified in the JTO LICE held in September, 2016 have not been sent for the training. Both the candidates, as well as the Company, are suffering due to the court cases. Under these circumstances, BSNLEU has written to the CMD BSNL, seeking his intervention to bring the court cases to an end, based on the affidavits already submitted by the candidates to the Punjab circle administration.

BSNLEU has written to the CMD BSNL, recording it’s resentment to the ambiguous reply given to the Hon’ble Minister in the Lok Sabha, with regards to the outsourcing of maintenance of BSNL 26,287 BTSs.

The Hon’ble CAT, Lucknow Bench, had given judgement for the conferment of Group B status and pay scale to the Sr.Accountants. There are only 32 Senior Accountants in service as of today. Instead of implementing the CAT judgement, the BSNL Management has gone on appeal in the Hon’ble Allahabad High Court, against the Hon’ble CAT judgement. BSNLEU has written to the Director (HR) demanding withdrawal of this appeal, and to confer Group B status and pay scale to the Sr. Accountants.

BSNLEU, vide it’s letter no.BSNLEU/604(DEV) dated 19.12.2019, had written to Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad, Hon’ble Minister of Communications, demanding to take action for filling up the post of Director (Finance), BSNL, which is lying vacant for the past so many years. A copy of the letter had been endorsed to the Principal Secretary of the Prime Minister’s Office. BSNLEU has now received a copy of the communication made by the PMO, to the Secretary, Department of Telecommunications, for taking appropriate action on BSNLEU’s letter.

32 candidates of Karnataka circle are being sent to ALTTC, Ghaziabad, for training. Apart from this, 7 more JE candidates have also completed their pre-basic-I & ll training at ALTTC, Ghaziabad. They were also to join the Phase l training at Ghaziabad. Under these circumstances, BSNLEU has written to the Director (HR), demanding to impart the phase-l and phase-ll training in the training centre at Mysuru itself, for all these 39 candidates. Com.P.Abhimanyu, GS, discussed this issue today over phone with Shri Ashutosh Gupta, Sr.GM(Training), BSNL CO. The  Sr. GM has accepted the demand of BSNLEU and has assured to do the needful for arranging the training of the aforementioned candidates at Mysuru itself.

BSNLEU has sought a formal meeting with the Director (HR), to discuss the following issues:-

1. Holding the JE LICE under 50% quota as on ‘off-line’ instead of ‘on-line’.
2. Relaxation to the ST candidates, appeared in the JE LICE held on 28.01.2018.
3. Giving one time relaxation to the RMs without 10^th Std. qualification, for appearing in the Telecom Technician LDCE.
4. Settlement of the down-gradation of the Sr.TOAs from 7100-200-10100 to 6550-185-9325.
5. Holding of JTO (Civil / Electrical) Special LICE to filling 50% vacancies from Draughtsman (Civil / Electrical) cadres.