Contractual staff protest disrupts BSNL's restoration works post-Amphan

State-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd on Wednesday said a section of its contractual workers have been protesting against the new service agreement with its vendors, resulting in severe disruption in the post- cyclone 'Amphan' restoration works in the Kolkata circle of the telecom major.

To stay afloat, the telecom company has decided to implement service-based agreements with a penalty clause for non-performance, instead of job-based contracts which were offered earlier to vendors, a senior BSNL official said.

Agitators have kept about 10 small and four large exchanges under lock and key, and they are also threatening permanent BSNL employees at several locations in eight of its clusters, where fresh contractors have been successfully engaged under the new agreement.

The BSNL authorities have sought help of the police and the state administration to normalise the situation, he said.

"The new system will bring down our outsourcing cost to nearly Rs 30 crore per annum from Rs 80 crore now. Of the annual revenue of about Rs 200 crore, the payment to vendors was as high as Rs 170 crore, he said.

Speaking about service disruption, the BSNL official said the telecom major was able to restore leased-line connections for institutional customers but 10 per cent of the individual landline and broadband subscribers are still suffering as its employees are "unable to carry out restoration works due to the violent protests" by the workers of its vendors.

The total number of landline and broadband connections have declined to about 5 lakh from 15 lakh in a few years back, though the vendor payments for service-related jobs remain high, leaving the telecom operator in financial stress.

"A section of workers under the old vendors are opposing this new contract. Fear of job loss for genuine workers is unfounded as new vendors have to choose labourers from the same lot. Only a third of the total contractual labourers work on the ground," the BSNL official said.

There are around 4,000 outsourced workers engaged by vendors in BSNL Kolkata circle.