Com. Animesh Mitra
[ President ]Com. P. Abhimanyu
[ General Secretary ]Com. John Verghese
[ Deputy General Secretary ]Com. Irfan Pasha
[ Treasurer ]Dada Ghosh Bhawan, 2151/1, New Patel Nagar, Opp. Shadipur Bus Depot, New Delhi- 110008
011-25705385(Office), 011-25894862(Fax)
Com. Animesh Mitra
[ President ]Com. P. Abhimanyu
[ General Secretary ]Com. John Verghese
[ Deputy General Secretary ]Com. Irfan Pasha
[ Treasurer ]Dada Ghosh Bhawan, 2151/1, New Patel Nagar, Opp. Shadipur Bus Depot, New Delhi- 110008
011-25705385(Office), 011-25894862(Fax)
The CEC meeting, held at New Delhi in November,2017, has decided to hold a CEC meeting, to conduct a "Mid-term Review". It means, the implementation of all the decisions taken in the last All India Conference, as well as the decisions taken in the Thiruvananthapuram and New Delhi CEC meetings will be reviewed in the forthcoming CEC meeting. Accordingly, the CHQ has decided to conduct the CEC meeting at Agartala in Tripura, on 3rd, 4th and 5th April, 2018, and notification is issued.
Quoting the letter written to the Hon'ble Prime Minister, on the matter of Merger of BSNL with MTNL, the DoT has replied, that presently there is no proposal for merger of BSNL and MTNL.
The BSNL Corporate Office has issued letter on 07.09.2018, introducing certain changes in the functioning of the councils. BSNLEU is of the strong opinion that the Staff Side of the councils should function democratically. However, it is undesirable that the Management is issuing letters every now and then, weakening the functioning of the Negotiating Councils. BSNLEU has written to the Director (HR), seeking her intervention to set right the matter.
All circle and district secretaries are hereby informed that in view of the meeting held between the Hon'ble Minister of State for Communications and the All Unions and Associations of BSNL on 24.02.2018, and also in view of the assurances given for the settlement of the demands, it is decided to defer the Work According to Rule agitation till 30th April, 2018. In view of this decision of the All Unions and Associations of BSNL, all comrades are requested to restore normalcy with immediate effect.
Employees of BSNL residing in MTNL areas are provided with residential connections by MTNL and the bills are being reimbursed at the rate of concession entitled to the BSNL employees. From 01.01.2017, MTNL has enhanced Fixed Monthly Charge from Rs.250/- to Rs.310/- along with GST in place of service charges. In view of this, BSNLEU has written to the Corporate Office demanding to revise the amount for reimbursement of MTNL bills.
BSNLEU has already written to the Member (Finance) explaining about the difficulties being faced by Sr.TOAs of Maharashtra circle in getting proper fixation of pension. The CCA, Maharashtra circle has objected to the Sr.TOAs upgraded to 7100-200-10100 pay scale under OTBP. GS, BSNLEU, has written to the Member (Finance), requesting for an early meeting to discuss this issue.
The Corporate Management has written to BSNLEU, seeking our response for it’s proposals to reduce the ceiling for the reimbursement of out door medical treatment to 12 days, and also to withdraw the “ without voucher payment facility”, for those retired employees residing in cities covered by CGHS scheme. BSNLEU strongly opposes both the proposals, and will write to the Management, communicating the same. There are a number of wasteful expenditures, which the Management should cut down. We will also discuss the same with the Management.
It is already 19th of August today, and so far the Corporate Office has not allotted funds to the circles, for the payment salary for the month of July, 2020. It has become a practice for the Management to make payment of salary, only when a call is given for agitational programme. They have no consideration for the sufferings of the employees, especially the lower level employees. BSNLEU has written to the CMD BSNL today, cautioning that employees would be forced to launch serious agitational programmes, if the mindset of the Management does not change. BSNLEU has also demanded immediate payment of the July salary.
Due to lockdown, 38 JTO Phase-I candidates are held up in the ALTTC. Their training has already started on 08.06.2020. Regarding the remaining 116 candidates for JTO Phase-I training, BSNLEU has demanded that their training should be decentralised and organised in the nearest training centres to their circles. However, the CGM, ALTTC, wants the training of all these 116 candidates to be held at ALTTC, starting with 06.07.2020. It has been brought to our notice that the CGM, ALTTC, is pressurising the candidates through unofficial communication, to join the training at ALTTC on 06.07.2020. Com.P.Abhimanyu, GS, spoke to Shri Arvind Vadnerkar, Director (HR), this morning and demanded that the unethical practice of the CGM, ALTTC, should stop immediately. The Director (HR) has kindly assured to intervene in this matter. BSNLEU has written the following letter to the Director (HR) today on this matter.
In it’s meetings held on 26.06.2018 and 04.07.2018, the AUAB has called on the BSNL employees to organise demonstration on 11.07.2018 and relay hunger strike on 24th to 26th July, 2018, demanding immediate implementation of the assurances given by the Hon’ble MoS(C) on 24.02.2018, with regards to 3rd Pay Revision, Implementation of Government of India Rules for payment of Pension Contribution by BSNL, Allotment of 4G spectrum to BSNL and Pension Revision. The AUAB issued notice today to the Secretary, DoT and CMD BSNL, for this agitation.
The BSNL Management vide it’s letter no.BSNL/5-1/SR/2018 dated 02nd July, 2019, has written to all the General Secretaries of the applicant unions, directing that no agitational programme should be organised till the process of Membership Verification is over. In that letter it is mentioned that the recognition of the unions has ceased in May, 2019. It is also threatened in that letter that, any applicant union, organising agitations during this period, would be debarred from participating in the Membership Verification. The argument of the Management is totally absurd and violative of the Labour Laws of the land. BSNLEU has written to the Management, demanding to withdraw this meaningless letter. Being a registered trade union, BSNLEU is having every right to organise legal agitational programme. BSNLEU has also lodged a complaint with the Chief Labour Commissioner in this regard. If required, BSNLEU will go to the court of law, to defend it’s trade union rights.
The Central Secretariat meeting of BSNLEU, which met on 15.06.2020, took serious view of the road-blocks being created for the Revival of BSNL, most importantly the rolling out of BSNL’s 4G service. Similarly, the meeting also noted with concern that, the BSNL Management is paying the least interest to settle the issues being raised by BSNLEU, from time to time. Lunch hour demonstrations are already organised on 21.05.2020, by BSNLEU, raising certain issues. Now, the Central Secretariat has decided to organise dharna programme with social distancing, on 26.06.2020, on the issues of BSNL’s Revival, launching of it’s 4G service, as well as on the burning issues of the Non-Executives. Accordingly, notice is served on the Management today. All the circle secretaries are requested to translate this notice into Regional Languages and to make the widest circulation among all the employees. The Hindi version of this notice will be released by the CHQ tomorrow.
As already informed, BSNLEU has written to the CMD BSNL, with copy to the Director (Finance), strongly opposing the reduction of the ceiling from 25 days to 12 days, for reimbursement of outdoor treatment expenditure, as well as withdrawal of payment of medical allowance without voucher, to the retired employees living in cities covered by CGHS facility.
The contract workers in BSNL are facing extreme hardships, due to the non-payment of wages for the past 10 months. The matter is already discussed with the Management a number of times. However, the Management is of the mindset that, payment of wages to the contract workers is the last priority. Besides, the Corporate Office has issued letters, retrenching a large number of contract workers. It is needless to state that, in the wake of the implementation of VRS and the heavy shortage that has arisen due to this, the experienced contract workers will prove to be very useful in the maintenance of the BSNL’s services. However, the Corporate Office has issued letters to get BSNL’s works done through the “Job Contract System”, in the place of the present “Labour Contract System”. This decision of the Management has jeopardised the future of all the contract workers presently working in BSNL. In view of the foregoing, both BSNLEU and BSNL Casual Contract Workers Federation (BSNL CCWF) have decided to organise a March to Corporate Office on 03.03.2020, demanding favourable actions from the BSNL Management, on the above issues. The All India Centre meeting of BSNLEU, held yesterday the 11.02.2020, has decided to mobilise maximum BSNL employees to this rally, from the nearby circles of UP(West), Haryana, Rajasthan, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and UP(East), apart from NTR and Corporate Office circles. CHQ has written to all the above mentioned circle secretaries requesting to make maximum mobilisation for the rally.
The Corporate Office has already issued a letter, stating that the Medical Cards issued to the BSNL retirees, under BSNL MRS, is valid upto 30.06.2020 or till further order. However, this is not properly understood in many circles and the retired employees are being pressurised to fill up forms, for the revalidation of their Medical Cards beyond 30.06.2020. It is reported from many circles that, hardships are being faced in filling up the forms, on account of the the restrictions imposed in movements. In view of this, BSNLEU has written to the GM(Admn.), BSNL CO., demanding to extend the validation of the Medical Cards of the BSNL retired employees upto 30.09.2020.