BSNL to give each employee Rs 2 million under proposed VRS

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) is willing to pay up to Rs 2 million per employee, as part of its proposed voluntary retirement scheme (VRS).

Moreover, it is believed that all employees above 45 years of age will be eligible for the VRS. The company has set an internal target of 99,700 employees, divided into four groups, namely, Group A (1,483 employees), Group B (6,262 employees), Group C (76,655 employees) and Group D (15,214 employees).

If approved by the employee union, BSNL plans to outsource key functions like transmission and switching system installation, training, civil engineering and architectural work.  

BSNL?s board is slated to finalise the scheme at its meeting on September 29, 2011. Thereafter, the operator will send it to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) for approval and then to the Union Cabinet.

It is believed that BSNL proposes to offer compensation equivalent to 35 days’ salary (pay and dearness allowance) for each completed year of service and 25 days’ salary for the residual service period till superannuation.

The VRS has been under discussion since 2009, when a panel headed by Sam Pitroda, advisor to the prime minister on public information infrastructure and innovations, advocated that BSNL take the VRS route to prune its workforce by a third. The proposed VRS aims to cut BSNL’s annual salary bill which, at 137.91 billion, amounts to 46.5 per cent of its total income.