Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has proposed to help in establishing an outsourcing cooperative for all employees who opt for its Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS). The company plans to provide work contracts on a five or ten-year basis to the proposed cooperative.
The operator has 0.3 million employees and is looking at reducing its workforce by 0.1 million employees.
R.K. Upadhyay, CMD, BSNL said, ?This VRS is important for BSNL, as paying our employees? salaries constitute over one-third of our costs. We have worked out a scheme that is a win-win situation for those who opt for the VRS. Not only do they obtain monetary benefit from the VRS but can also earn a steady income from the cooperative.?
It is believed that the cooperative can take up turnkey projects from private telecom players as well.
However, BSNL?s various employees associations are skeptical about the offer. According to V.A.N. Namboodiri, president, BSNL Employees Union, ?The plan to set up a VRS-linked cooperative is not attractive because in effect it means that a worker who is being paid Rs 25,000 will be asked to do the same job for Rs 6,000.?
