The unions and associations affiliated with Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) and other unions/associations assembled under the banner of Bharatiya Door Sanchar Manch have decided to celebrate the coming months as “Betrayal Month by Management” as they have gone back on their own promise of celebrating the April’2025 Month as HR Month. The indifferent attitude of BSNL management is not only in clearance of pending and legitimate HR issues but also is prevalent in timely addressing the crucial concerns of BSNL viability mostly pertaining to the problems associated with the development of Swadeshi Mobile 4G/5G Core and non-provisioning of proper resources to handle the operation and maintenance issues..

The employees of BSNL are so devoted to the cause of BSNL that they came forward to celebrate February’25 Month as FTTH Month and March’25 as the Revenue Month. All the employees have been working very hard and the results of such hard work is now visible on the results of the FY 2024-25 and in the record-breaking revenue collection in the month of March 2025. It’s worth mentioning that that BSNL has delivered a net profitable quarter after almost 17 years in the Q3 results of FY 2024-25. Despite such strong results of togetherness, management has comprehensively forgotten its own promise of celebrating April Month as HR Month with no focus on resolution of long pending issues of Pay, Pension and Promotion.

Today, our beloved BSNL is facing lot of issues due to poor handling of the most prestigious Swadeshi 4G/5G Project which holds immense significance not only for BSNL but also for our country. Despite the full support of the government, the project is being consistently marred with problems, mostly due to the inept handling of the project by the Management and the associated vendors. This delay in smooth rollout of full-fledged 4G/5G services and consistent day to day problems in the network is leading to huge churn of subscribers which is further leading to a great dip in revenue.

Not only 4G but even the basic issues in the FTTH segment is also not being looked upon which is taking BSNL lag behind its competitors in this era of fierce competition in FTTH / EB segments. The backhaul issues, Network issues, connectivity issues, lack of proper Infra and Equipment have been brought to the notice of management time and again but to no avail and no appreciable action has been taken to rectify the problems. This loss of revenue to BSNL is only due to the poor implementation strategy and not taking vendors to the task in a timely and effective manner. BSNL is lagging behind not due to employees but due to the policy makers in management who never bothered to get into the root cause of the problem and are keeping employees engaged in Meetings, Report making etc than the actual output-oriented work.

Added to this, there is huge disparity in the Pay Structure, Promotional Avenues, Perks & Allowances within the BSNL wherein one group of the officers on deputation from outside organisation has been extended all benefits and preferential treatment while those recruited/absorbed in BSNL are being denied everything in the name of the profitability. Management made a promise of celebrating April 2025 month as HR month with focus on resolution of all the long pending HR issues of BSNL Employees but instead of lending focus on resolution, management is desperate to create more issues in HR. Non issuance of LICE Promotions despite readiness for two months, Withdrawal of Sports Facility, Issuance of a poorly framed Laptop Reimbursement policy, rejection of mobile reimbursement scheme to JEs etc are few glaring examples which speaks volumes about the intent of management for the resolution of the HR issues and the so called celebration of the self-coined term of the management itself i.e. “Celebrating April 2025 Month as HR Month”. It is very clear now that all that management is interested in is the nomenclature of months with no focus on actual output.

We are left with no option but to serve notice for organisational activity to seek resolutions on the crucial BSNL revival and survival issues, as well as long-pending genuine HR issues affecting BSNL employees. Our demands include resolution of 3rd PRC, Wage negotiation, Pension Revision, 2nd PRC residuals like Standard Pay Scale E2-E3 & Pay Loss Issues, 30% Superannuation Benefit (SAB) Quantum, PRMB, JE pay scale, Review of NEPP, Stagnation, Medical, All India LTC Perks & Allowances issues, Promotions for all eligible executives and non-executives across all streams/cadres and providing smooth career progression, “One Company – One Policy” for all Employee in BSNL. The disparity in the Pay, Perks & allowances and Promotional avenues of those on deputation and those Recruited/absorbed in BSNL must end now and equal rights must be given to all.

After exhaustive deliberations even with other stakeholders and groups, we conclude that our efforts to resolve the stalemate through dialogue have been unsuccessful, and our patience for amicable resolution has been exhausted due to the management’s failure to honour their commitments. With no hope for a mutually agreeable solution, the participants of the Bharatiya Door Sanchar Manch (BDM) have decided to serve an organizational call notice to settle the long-standing issues listed below.

We sincerely appeal all employees to unite and support this call for the betterment of the organisation as well as for the resolution of the long pending HR issues. Hopefully, in coming days, other associations & unions may follow suit and participate as the issues are common to all and for the benefit of all the employees.

Click here for the Notice by BDM

DEMANDS :

A] BSNL’s viability Issues:

• Enquiry into the circumstances leading to the failure of BSNL to launch full-fledged 4G and 5G services PAN India under Atma Nirbhar Bharat. Issuance of white paper on the actions taken by BSNL to resolve the problems in smooth rollout of the 4G services (Voice fine tuning issues etc.) and to arrest the growing customer dis-satisfaction.
• Implementation of recommendations given by the Committee of Public undertakings (COPU) in its 6th Report for BSNL dated 18th December 2024 submitted to the 18th Loksabha.
• Overhauling and strengthening of backhaul and other fibre network of BSNL. Alternate mechanism to arrest the frequent media outage leading to consistent problems in backhaul and low network availability.
• Provisioning of adequate resources to the field officers for Network and FTTH maintenance, including tools and mobile handsets for field staff.
• Issuance of white paper on the assets of BSNL which has been taken by DoT after 01.10.2000 without providing adequate compensation to BSNL and transferring its ownership back to BSNL as envisaged in the terms and conditions formulated while incorporating BSNL.
• White paper on utilisation of various “Revival Packages” by BSNL vis-à-vis the investment made and its associated outcome.
• White Paper on the outcome of the Consultant appointed for Organisation Transformation in Strategic Area vis-à-vis the expenditure made.
• Posting of a Regular CMD, CGMs and BA heads at the earliest in BSNL for continuity in the implementation of the various decisions/projects and telecom objectives of the government especially that of Atma Nirbhar Bharat in Telecom.

B] Resolution of Long Pending HR Issues:

• Implementation of 3rd PRC in BSNL for executives by waiving of the affordability clause in view of the BSNL’s status as strategic PSU and its involvement in the “Make in India” initiative for development of Swadeshi 4G/5G Technology. Finalization of Wage negotiation for non-executives.
• Delinking of Pension Revision with Profitability of BSNL. Pension Revision of BSNL/MTNL Pensioners at par with Central Government Pensioners and implementation of Hon’ble PBCAT judgement.
• “One Company – One Policy” for all Employee in BSNL. The disparity in the Pay, Perks & allowances and Promotional avenues of those on deputation and those Recruited/absorbed in BSNL must be removed and equal rights must be given to all.
• Settlement of residuals of 2nd PRC recommendation, including:
• Issuance of revised presidential order for replacement of the initial two scales E2 (20,600-3%-46,500) for JTO/JAO/Equivalent grades and E3 (24,900-3%-50,500) for SDE/AO/Equivalent grades, which was approved by the BSNL full board in May 2016 and sent to DoT.
• 30% defined contribution towards Superannuation Benefit as per DPE guidelines.
• Creating the mandatory Post-Retirement Medical Benefit Fund (PRMB) for BSNL recruits as per DPE guidelines.
• Settlement of Pay Loss issues of JTOs/JAOs recruited post 1.1.2007 due to wrongful implementation of 2nd PRC benefits for BSNL Recruits (22820/-, E1+5 increments, Pay fixation of DR JE to JTO, JE period Pay Loss)
• Fixing the appropriate JE pay scale and Review of NEPP to extend sufficient career progression to the non-executives.
• Redressal of stagnation issues pertaining to the employees of BSNL.
• Restoration of Medical Coverage (Indoor + Outdoor) as per initial BSNLMRS.
• Extension of Perks & Allowances (Transport, Children Education Allowance, TA/DA etc) and restoration of All India LTC etc.
• Promotions for all eligible executives and non-executives across all streams/cadres and providing smooth career progression with minimum span of years to the employees of BSNL by provisioning of sufficient promotional posts through restructuring review. Settlement of all pending seniority issues. Review of deficit and surplus circle transfer policy to enable inter circle, rule-8, Spouse, PWD and Medical cases transfer. Immediate issuance of all pending promotions.
• Implementation of E1 instead of NE-12 scale for the non-executives at par with MTNL.

All the Office Bearers and Members are requested to give a wide publicity to the program and ensure for its success to vent your resentment as expressed from time to time. BDM sincerely believes and quite hopeful that management will take necessary & immediate action on BSNL Revival and Survival and also seize the opportunity to address the lost trust and ensure immediate settlement of our long pending HR issues and address our serious concerns as stated above to maintain Employees-Employer relationship healthy and in a state of motivation for higher growth of the organisation.

Join us in our efforts to bring about change and ensure a brighter future for BSNL and its employees’ welfare.