The Corporate Office has issued a letter on 24.05.2021, directing the CGMs to take suitable action for releasing the terminal benefits of the deceased employees, within 30 days. Again, Director (HR) has issued a letter yesterday, wherein he has expressed the dissatisfaction in the progress of this issue. Further, the Director (HR) has also told the CGMs that the terminal benefits of all the deceased employees who died prior to 30.04.2021 should be released before 15.06.2021. Timely payment of terminal benefits to the families of the deceased employees is a very important matter. Hence, all the circle secretaries and CHQ office bearers are requested to pay attention to this matter and to ensure that the terminal benefits of the deceased employees are released as per the time limit set by the Director (HR).

The Director (HR) has issued letter for granting medical advance to the employees, for undergoing COVID-19 treatment. The amount of advance for Delhi and Mumbai will be Rs.1 lakh per employee for isolation bed ; Rs.2 lakh per employee for ICU without ventilator and Rs.3 lakh per employee for ICU with ventilator. The ceiling of advance to the employees posted in X, Y & Z categories of cities will be limited to 90%, 80% and 75% respectively, of the above mentioned rates. BSNLEU wrote to the Director (HR) yesterday, demanding the sanctioning of emergency medical advance to the employees for COVID-19 treatment. 

The government has already issued instruction, for the extension of payment of special concessions to the employees of Central Government / PSUs posted in the Kashmir Valley. However, BSNL did not implement this. BSNLEU has repeatedly written letters and took up the issue with the BSNL Management. As a result, the Corporate Office has issued letter today, approving the payment.  

The MoU signed between BSNL Management and LIC Management, for the implementation of Group Term Insurance (GTI) for the Non-Executives is attached herewith. Comrades are requested to go through the MoU to get the full details of the GTI scheme.

Following the MoU signed between BSNL and LIC, for the implementation of GTI for the Non-Executives in BSNL, the Corporate Office issued  letter today, for the implementation of the same. The corporate Office has also issued guidelines for exercising online option for GTI scheme. The last date for submitting an online option is 15.02.2021. The GTI will be implemented w.e.f. 01.03.2021.

BSNLEU has already  filed a case in the Hon’ble Kerala High Court, against the freezing of 3 instalments of IDA of the Non-Executive employees. The hearing on this case took place yesterday. We are very sure to get a favourable judgement next week. Already the Kerala High Court and the Karnataka High Court have given   judgements in favour of the Non-Executives. Apart from this, BSNLEU  has also written a strong  letter to the Secretary, DPE, demanding to immediately issue order for the payment of the 2 installments of IDA, that have already become due w.e.f 01-10-2020 and 01-01-2021. 

Under these circumstances, the DPE has issued guideline yesterday, stating that, the freezing of 3 instalments  of IDA is not applicable to the Non Executive employees. Certainly, the DPE has been compelled to issue this guideline, only because of the pressure created through the legal action. BSNLEU feels proud that, it has played an important role in compelling the DPE to issue this guideline. 

The Non-Executive employees will now get payment of 5.5% IDA w.e.f 01-10 -2020 and 6.1% IDA w.e.f 01-01-2021(Totally 11.6% IDA). This is a significant victory  for the efforts  taken by BSNLEU. Hearty congrats to the entire Non-Executives of BSNL.

In the discussion held with Shri Arvind Vadnerkar, Director (HR) yesterday, Com.P.Abhimanyu, General Secretary, expressed  his extreme unhappiness over the delay in implementing the Group Term Insurance (GTI) to the Non-Executives. The Director (HR) assured the General Secretary that, prompt action would be taken in this respect. Accordingly, yesterday itself, the Director (HR) has constituted a Committee to negotiate the terms and conditions of the GTI with LIC. The Committee consists of Sr.GM(Estt.), Sr.GM(SR), Sr.GM(CA), GM(Admn.) and DGM (Welfare). In addition to this, the Corporate Office has also forwarded the proposals of the LIC, on GTI, to the Recognised Unions, calling for their views.

Ms. Yojana Das, who had served in the Corporate Office for long years, is appointed by the government as the Director (Finance) of BSNL. After the retirement of Shri K.C.G.K. Pillai, the post of Director (Finance) was lying vacant for many years. Both BSNLEU and the AUAB have conducted many programmes demanding to fill up the Director (Finance) post. Thereafter, Shri S.K. Gupta, was appointed on an interim basis. Finally, we are glad that BSNL has got a full-fledged Director (Finance). BSNLEU heartily congratulates Ms. Yojana Das and wish her all success in her new assignment.