The employees’ union of BSNL has strongly opposed the recommendations of the Sam Pitroda committee, which has suggested reducing the company’s workforce by a third and divesting up to 30 per cent stake through a strategic investor or an initial public offer (IPO).
“We strongly oppose the suggestions by Pitroda committee. There is no necessity of reducing the workforce; every year about 10,000 people are retiring,” BSNL Employees Union head, V A N Namboodiri said.
“We would have a meeting of all the unions next week and decide our next plan of action, whether to go on strike against this or not,” he added.
The unions had already been opposing BSNL’s IPO for the last two years, when the government was planning to divest just 10 per cent stake. Namboodiri said the unions are still against the idea of privatising the company.
For the first time, BSNL is expected to post a loss due to increased competition and declining market share, which stands at about 12 per cent currently.
However, it would be very difficult to implement the suggestions with the strong opposition from unions.
“BSNL is under severe pressure and is making losses for the first time due to increased competition, a declining fixed-line market, antiquated processes and procedural bottleneck especially related to purchase of equipment, bureaucratic and government dependent decision-making,” the committee noted.