Confident of overwhelming support from employees to its public listing plans, state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd will shortly conduct an opinion poll among employees on the proposed IPO before calling the unions to the negotiating table.
"On the BSNL intranet sites, employees have overwhelmingly welcomed the IPO. They have also asked that an opinion poll should be conducted. Keeping in view the sentiments of the staff we will conduct an electronic poll," BSNL CMD Kuldeep Goyal told PTI.
The poll would ask the employees whether or not they support the IPO.
Though certain unions are opposing the proposed IPO, most BSNL employees are favorably inclined towards the listing, company officials said.
BSNL has a intranet site for its staff where the employees can communicate with the management. The poll would be conducted electronically on the intranet site and the result posted on the site.
Earlier, the BSNL Employees Union had warned the management against proceeding with the IPO and threatened to strike work, arguing that the proposal for 10 per cent equity dilution in BSNL was devoid of any merit.
The union had also rejected the argument that BSNL was in need of funds for expansion and hence it was taking the IPO route.
