As BPCL braces for privatisation, workers worry about their future

Older workers are headed for the VRS exit in larger-than-expected numbers even as unrest stirs over unrevised wage settlements

Fifty-year-old Pawan Kumar (name changed) from Mumbai has been a lower-grade permanent employee with Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) for the past 26 years, and he expected to retire from the public sector oil major. Last year, after the government declared that the oil major would be privatised, that career path is no longer a certainty.

Kumar’s chief concern is his minimal education — till class 2 — which a private player may not find acceptable. So when BPCL announced a voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) in July, he opted for it. “I have two children in classes 10 and 12. What