Why Pay Revision with 15% Fitment cannot be denied
CHQ WRITES TO MOSC REQUESTING IMPLEMENTATION OF REVISED PAY SCALES WITH 15% FITMENT BENEFIT FOR BSNL EXECUTIVES
No.AIBSNLOA/CHQ/2017/42
Dated: 15th November 2017
To
Shri Manoj Sinha,
Hon’ble Minister of State for Communications,
Government of India
New Delhi
Subject:
Implementation of revised pay scales with 15% fitment benefit for BSNL executives - reg.
Hon'ble Sir,
At the outset, we are thankful for your reported inclination towards
implementing revised pay scales with 25% fitment benefit in respect of
BSNL executives, even though BSNL does not fully meet the affordability
condition stipulated by the 3rd PRC but BSNL is already on revival path
and reporting operational profit for last few years. In this regard, we
would like to draw your kind attention to the fact that MTNL employees
were allowed pay revision as recommended by 2nd PRC w.e.f. 1.1.2007 with
the highest 30% fitment benefit although the affordability clause
existed then and MTNL was incurring loss for consecutive years.
2.
We now learn that BSNL Board has approved a proposal for pay revision
and has submitted to the administrative department i.e., the Department
of Telecommunication.
3. It is needless to say that BSNL was
formed when Hon’ble Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee ji, was the Prime Minister
of India, with a Mission to provide world class, State-of-art
technology based telecom services on demand at affordable prices and to
provide world class telecom infrastructure to develop country’s economy.
At the time of Corporatisation, while approving HRD and financial
issues arising out of the corporatisation, the Union Cabinet had assured
that “Government will consider and provide a package of measures so
that the viability of BSNL is not impaired because of implementation of
any socially desirable uneconomic activity, such as rural telephony,
undetaken by BSNL at the behest of Government”.
4. Since then,
BSNL has been discharging the social obligations of the Government of
India by providing services in remote and rural areas inspite of
incurring loss because of these services and its presence in the Telecom
industry as a fully Government owned PSU, aiming at providing world
class services at affordable tariff, has been accepted by every stake
holder as a ‘moderating factor’ in controlling the tariff in favour of
the customers.
5. When all private networks failed to provide
dependable service during natural calamities, whether it was Hudhud
cyclone in Andhra Pradesh, Vardha cyclone in Tamilnadu, Floods in
Tamilnadu and Uttarakhand, Earthquake in Jammu & Kashmir, BSNL was
the only operator which proved its robustness.
6.1 In the
prestigious Digital India programme of Hon’ble Prime Minister of India
too, BSNL is contributing in two three areas, like National Optic Fibre
Network (NOFN), providing Wi-fi hotspots at commercial places, Mobile
Wallet service under the Prime Minister Jan Dhan Yojana and delivering
m-governance services like digital mandi, kisan seva, Digital high
quality educational content among others. BSNL’s contribution towards
BharatNet is also worth mentioning.
6.2 BSNL's role in ensuring
GST compliance also cannot be under estimated. BSNL introduced GSP/ASP
service on PAN India basis to assist Small and Medium Enterprises as
well as large business houses in transitioning to GST by launching an
application software which will record invoices on a PC / hand held
device or a smart phone along with all GST compliances like preparation
of GST Returns, Assistance in generation of GST challans for payment,
filing of GST Returns, sending back mismatch invoices etc. BSNL also
played an effective role during demonetisation in last November by
providing seamless network connectivity among banks and financial
institutions.
7. Recently BSNL has signed (MoU) with Fiber Home to
jointly start manufacturing telecom equipment and optical fiber cable
in BSNL factories, underscoring another initiative by Hon’ble Prime
Minister of India – ‘Make in India’.
8. BSNL revenue over the past
three years is increasing. The year 2013-14 saw an increase in revenue
of 3.2%. The year 2014-15 saw an increase of 2.32%. In the year 2015-16,
the increase in income is 14.92% whereas in the same year the expenses
decreased marginally by 1.47%. The loss is declining and BSNL is likely
to make profit in 2018.
9. While these are sufficient ground
justifying revision of pay scales of BSNL employees with 15% fitment
benefit, we would like to draw your kind attention towards another major
fact which cannot be ignored or overlooked.
10. All the senior
officers of Department of Telecommunication who are on ‘deployment’ in
BSNL, holding major managerial positions in BSNL have already got their
pay fixed in revised scales as per the recommendations of VII Central
Pay Commission with 14.2% fitment benefit w.e.f. 1.1.2016. All of them
draw their higher pay and perks from BSNL and BSNL’s affordability to
pay was not at all an issue for them. If BSNL employees are denied the
revised pay with 15% fitment benefit, it will result in an unprecedented
discrimination against its own employees vis-à-vis those who are under
‘deployment’. The fall out of such a situation will be unparalleled in
the history of indian Public Sector.
11. It will be therefore
unfair if BSNL executives are denied their due pay revision in the name
of non-affordability, since such a proposition will have a negative
impact on their morale which in turn will affect the revival plans of
BSNL.
12. We therefore earnestly request you to kindly get the
issue examined thoroughly and to ensure that pay revision as per 3rd PRC
recommendations are implemented in BSNL with 15% fitment benefit in
view of its strategic national importance.
With kind regards,
Yours sincerely,
(Rakesh Sethi)
General Secretary
Source: http://www.aibsnloa.org/
