In the meeting held between the AUAB and the CMD BSNL yesterday, the AUAB has demanded early withdrawal of the show-cause notices issued to the leaders of the Executives’ Associations, for imposition of break-in-service FR 17-A. In this regard, once again the AUAB has written to Shri P.K. Purwar, CMD BSNL, demanding early action on the matter.

CHQ has received a good number of complaints from the candidates who appeared in the recently held JE LICE, with regards to the discrepancies found in the question paper. CHQ has written to the Director (HR), taking up this issue and demanding necessary relief to the candidates.

BSNL Contract workers have not been paid wages for the past one year. 12 contract workers have committed suicide due to this. Now, Management is massively retrenching the contract workers, through outsourcing. The repeated demands raised by BSNLEU and BSNL CCWF, demanding payment of the wage arrears and also against outsourcing have not yielded any result. Under these circumstances, the Contract workers of West Bengal and Kolkata circles have gone on  strike. BSNLEU has written to the CMD BSNL, demanding to solve the problem by making payment of the wage arrears and also reviewing the decision to outsource works.

BSNL Corporate Office has already issued letters to the CGMs, with regards to deduction of Union subscription at the enhanced rate, and also with regards to remittance of CHQ’s quota directly to the All India Union. However, it is learnt that, still some of the circle administrations have not implemented these letters. Further, CHQ has already written to the GM (SR), BSNL CO., requesting for the furnishing of district wise quota particulars, by the circle administrations. On all these 3 issues, CHQ has once again written to the GM (SR), BSNL CO.

BSNLEU is demanding for a long time that the Jr. Accountants should be given promotion as Sr. Accountants, as a one time measure, based on the judgements of Hon’ble CAT, Ernakulam and Hon’ble High Court of Kerala. The case going on in the Hon’ble Supreme Court has come to an end. The demand of the Jr. Accountants is rejected. Still, BSNLEU writes to the Director (HR) demanding settlement of this grievance on humanitarian grounds.

The AUAB has already protested the unlawful detention of two BSNL officers, for more than 5 hours on 04.12.2018, by the Jharkhand police. This violation of human right has been committed at the behest of the Chief Minister of Jharkhand. The AUAB has written to the Hon’ble Prime Minister, with copy to the Hon’ble Home Minister, the Hon’ble Minister of State for Communications, etc., demanding appropriate and expeditious action on the perpetrators of this crime.

With view to overcome it’s severe shortage in cash flow, the BSNL Corporate Office has recently issued direction to the field units to retrench contract workers. In many circles upto 30% of the contract workers are retrenched. In his meeting held with the CMD BSNL on 06.07.2018, Com. P. Abhimanyu, GS, has suggested that those retrenched contract workers could be taken back and be engaged in the marketing activities. This will bring extra income to the Company, while providing livelihood to the retrenched contract workers. The CMD BSNL appreciated this suggestion, and assured that it would be looked into. In continuation of this discussion, BSNLEU has written to the CMD BSNL, insisting for the consideration of it’s suggestion for the reengagement of the retrenched contract workers.

As has been decided in the last meeting of the Joint Committee on PLI, the next meeting will be held on 09.03.2018. As was agreed in the last meeting, Management Side has to present data pertaining to revenue collection, increasing customer base and staff strength, related to 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17, based on which discussion will take place.

The All India BSNL Cultural Meet 2018 is going to be held at Ahmedabad. In this regard, Corporate Office has issued instructions, according to which various events of music, dance and instrumental have been mixed up. Traditionally, these events found their place separately in the All India Cultural Meet. BSNLEU has written to the Corporate Management, demanding to maintain the categorisation of events that have been followed hitherto.

In the meeting held between the Hon’ble MoS(C) and the DoT on 03.12.2018, it was assured that an Institutional Mechanism would be put in place, for periodical interaction between the AUAB and the DoT. The AUAB has written to the Secretary, Telecom, demanding constitution of this mechanism at the earliest. The AUAB has also demanded that the said Institutional Mechanism should be headed by the Additional Secretary, Telecom and not by a junior ranking officer of the DoT.