BSNL Asked To Remove 35,000 Employees; Freezes Employees Benefits To Save Rs 5000 Crore

The tsunami unleashed by Jio in the telecom sector has created a disruption never seen before. Earlier, we assumed that private telecom firms were impacted, but we were so wrong.

State-carrier BSNL, which is backed by the Govt., is impacted too, and very strongly.

As per fresh reports coming in, BSNL has been asked to remove 35,000 employees from their payroll and save costs, if they want to survive.

And the first steps have already been taken.

Keep reading to find out more!

BSNL: Will They Remove 35,000 Employees?

As of 2018, BSNL has 174,000 employees and compared to them, private telcos have 25,000 to 30,000 employees. Hence, BSNL has 5-times more employees that any other private telecom firm.

IIM Ahmedabad had been tasked to create a report on how BSNL can survive in these times, and cut losses. And the report says that BSNL will have to remove 35,000 employees, atleast.

The report recommends giving our VRS or Voluntary Retirement offer to these 35,000 employees, which will incur Rs 13,000 crore expense.

It seems that spending this much to remove employees will help them to streamline their costs, and be more productive.

The final report will be submitted soon.

BSNL Freezes Employees Benefits

BSNL Managing Director Anupam Shrivastava has already taken the first steps.

Employee benefits such as Travel Allowances have been frozen for all employees, and even medical allowances are being deducted.

Anupam said, “We are cutting costs in terms of electricity, administrative expenses and freezing our employee benefits. For the time being, we are not giving any LTC (leave travel concession) benefits, etc. The medical expenses are also being controlled,”

He also said that the details of VRS package are being worked out, and a decision will be taken very soon. This means that employees will be asked to leave from BSNL, very soon.

Survival Is The Key Here

On the issue of firing employees, Anupam said, “They said if you (BSNL) have to really survive, we need have to do various such activities to ensure that company survives the turmoil in the market and benefits to employees can come when the company is profitable.”

BSNL was able to save Rs 2500 crore in a year, by cutting expenses. 25% of this amount was saved due to freezing employees benefits.

In order to support their massive employee base of 1.75 lakh employees and to continue operations, BSNL spends Rs 15,000 crore a year.

BSNL reported loss of Rs 1,925.33 in the July to October quarter this year, which is a drop of 15% in revenues.

We will keep you updated, as more details come in.