BSNL employees calls National wide strike

New Delhi, July 25: The Employees of state-owned telecom company BSNL have called a daylong nationwide strike on July 27 for not being given salary hike by the third pay revision committee.

The committee recommends a hike on the basis of performance of public sector firms.

"BSNL became a loss making entity not because of the employees but because of the anti-BSNL policies and measures adopted by the government. BSNL was not allowed to procure equipment for its mobile network expansion from 2006 to 2012," BSNL Employee Union convenor P Abhimanyu said in a statement said.

The recommendation of the third Pay Revision Committee was approved by the Cabinet on July 19.

As per the affordability clause of the recommendations, only those public sector undertakings (PSUs) which have earned a profit during the last three financial years are eligible to give wage revision to their employees.

"The officers and workers of BSNL are going on a one day strike on July 27, 2017, demanding wage revision. The next round of wage revision has become due for the entire public sector employees from January 1, 2017," the statement said.

Abhimanyu alleged that tenders floated by BSNL to procure mobile equipment were canceled one after another by the government to benefit the private telecom companies

"As a result of this blockade created by the government in the procurement of equipment, BSNL was not able to take advantage of the exponential growth witnessed in the mobile segment, during this period," he said.