The board of the state-run telecom services provider Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has accepted a proposal to lay off close to 54,000 employees and is said to be waiting for elections to get over before taking the final call.
The BSNL board also approved recommendations on the
reduction of retirement age from the present 60 years to 58 years, Voluntary
Retirement Scheme (VRS) for all employees aged 50 and above and expediting the
allocation of 4G spectrum to to BSNL.
The decision on retirement age and VRS will lead
to exit of around 54,451 BSNL employees, which is 31% of the company’s
174,312-strong workforce.
The move to trim the retirement age alone will end up reducing the employee
count by 33,568 employees and will save BSNL a total of Rs 13,895 crore over
the next six years on the wage bill.
The average age of BSNL workforce is estimated to be over 55 years.
Both BSNL and MTNL were unable to pay salaries to their employees for
the month of February. Both the PSUs recently approached the government for
financial support and to resolve legacy issues, but the Centre is yet to take
any final call.
