BSNL unions refuse to accept proposal for IPO

The report, submitted by former Supreme Court Justice M Jagannadha Rao yesterday, recommended that employee sock options (ESOPs) should be provided to central PSU employees. This is to be done by linking the ESOPs to performance of the employees. 

"We strongly oppose the listing of the company since it is not needed at this point of time. Even if ESOPs are proposed we will oppose the listing," said V A N Namboodiri, general secretary, BSNL Employee Union.

A statement released by the Department of Telecom (DoT) yesterday, after a meeting with Minister for Communication and Information Technology Andimuthu Raja indicated that the employees were in favour of the listing. It stated that "unions will respond positively to suggestion for listing of BSNL before June 3, which will help BSNL in getting Navratna status which is very essential in order to maintain the image of BSNL and its survival and growth." 

The union has issued counter statement stating that "it is once again emphatically stated that we are against listing, disinvestment, privatisation and voluntary retirement scheme  and we have not agreed to any such proposals made by the minister, DoT or BSNL management. Such proposals will be strongly opposed by the unions including resorting to agitational programmes including strike."

The listing of the PSU has earlier also reached a snag due to the opposition by the unions. Earlier this year, Goyal had said, "An IPO might be necessary for us as we will invest around Rs 60,000 crore in the medium-term basis." Regarding the initial public offer, he said before taking a final call on the issue it would be examined by all the stake holders, including the government.

 Industry analysts had estimated BSNL to be valued at over Rs 4,00,000 crore. The plan was to divest 10 per cent through the IPO. The valuation of India's largest telecom company makes it larger than the combined market capitalisation of Bharti Airtel Rs 1,16,342 crore and Reliance Communications (RCom) at Rs1,19,125  respectively the second- and third-largest telecom companies.

The employees,  however, agreed that in the meeting with the minister ended with a collective decision on some issues which included 50 per cent industrial dearness allowance (IDA) merger orders that  will be issued by BSNL.

It was also decided that the promotion policy for non-executives will be decided within three months of issues of wage revision orders for executives of PSUs from the government. Such a  time frame would help to avoid anomalies and conflicts between executive and non-executive pay scales.