Bharat Petroleum Employees Say Big NO To VRS, Privatisation Of PSU; 2-Day Strike Announced Against Govt

State owned BPCL is the country’s third-biggest oil refiner and second-largest fuel retailer.

The Corporation has decided to offer a Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) to its employees, as released in an internal notice to its employees.

The scheme is named as ‘Bharat Petroleum Voluntary Retirement Scheme – 2020 (BPVRS-2020)’ and we are here to give to complete details about the same.

What is the BPCL VRS and who does is Target?

The state owned PSU BPCL has introduced a voluntary retirement scheme for its employees before the privatisation of the organization.

The government will hand over the big shot to private players soon.

In an internal notice directed towards its employees, BPCL wrote “The Corporation has decided to offer a Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS), with a view to enable employees, who are not in a position to continue in service of the Corporation due to various personal reasons, to request for grant of voluntary retirement from the services of the Corporation.”

The retirement scheme will operate from July 23 to August 13.

A senior official commented that this scheme has been introduced for those employees who do not wish to work under a private management, once the company is privatised.

So this scheme will play the role of an exit option to such employees.

According to BPCL notice, all employees who are 45 years of age or above are eligible for the VRS.

It has also specifically addressed that employees recruited as sportsperson (active sportspersons) as well as the board-level executives, are excluded from this scheme.

How have BPCL Employees taken this?

Clearly, the employee associations of the PSU have shown their resentment towards this scheme, in addition to their strong opposition towards privatising the government company.

In fact, the employee unions under the All India Coordination Committee of BPCL Workers are planning a two-day flash strike against the two happenings, i.e., VRS proposal and privatisation of the PSU.

The All India Coordination Committee of BPCL Workers have issued a circular conveying the same, also requesting fellow employees to not opt for the proposed VRS scheme.

Why are Employees Proposing Privatisation?

According to the All India Coordination Committee of BPCL Workers,

“Workmen will not get a clear idea about their financial package. It is also not sure whether any wage settlement will be signed before privatisation. You should not fall prey to the imaginary financial package shown by the management. We want real figure to advise our members.”

The circular highlighted that despite the wage agreement expiring on December 31, 2016 in Mumbai Refinery, May 31, 2018 in Marketing and July 31, 2018 on Kochi Refinery, there hasn’t been any kind of settlement yet.