BSNL employees threaten to go on indefinite strike from Monday

Graduate engineers and junior telcom officers of state-run BSNL will go on indefinite strike from Monday if their demands were not met, an employees' association of the PSU said.

     
"All graduates that were recruited directly by BSNL after its formation in 2000 will stage protest and go for indefinite strike from Monday unless our demands are met. We have been facing discrimination and denial of basic rights," AIGETOA General Secretary RP Sahu said.

     
Sahu claims that the association has around 12,000 members which include telecom engineers and account officers.

     
All India Graduate Engineers and Telecom officers Association (AIGETOA) has placed six demands before the management related to basic pay, retirement benefits, promotion, discrimination in transfer, discrimination in promotion policies and formal platform for the association.

     
BSNL Chairman and MD R K Upadhyay said that action on all genuine demands of employees is in progress.

     
"It has been reiterated to them that BSNL management is taking all possible means to foster industrial peace and harmony in the company which is operating in a hyper competitive environment. We have already appealed them to desist from illegal strike which is harmful to BSNL and at the same will adversely affect the striking employees," he said.

     
Upadhyay added that after years BSNL has started expansion of company's network to retain top slot in the market and employees should help in this growth story.

     
AIGETOA claimed that the strike is likely to impact BSNL's mobile and billing services as around 90% of protesting employees look after these services.