Wage Revision for non-executive employees w.e.f 01.01.2017 in BSNL held on 03.12.2021: Record of discussion of the reconstituted Joint committee

Record of discussion of the reconstituted Joint committee for recommending wage revision for non-executive employees w.e.f 01.01.2017 in BSNL held on 03.12.2021

(A GOVERNMENT OF INDIA ENTERPRISE)
O/o Sr. GM(SR), Corporate Office
8th Floor, Bharat Sanchar Bhawan,
Harish Chander Mathur Lane,

No. BSNL/38-1/SR/2016

Dated: 07.03.2022

Subject: Record of discussion of the reconstituted Joint committee for recommending wage revision for non-executive employees w.e.f 01.01.2017 in BSNL held on 03.12.2021.

The second meeting of the reconstituted Joint committee was held on 3.12.2021 in the Board Room, 3 Floor, Bharat Sanchar Bhawan, Janpath, New Delhi. The following were present in the meeting.

Official side:

1. Sh. R. K. Goyal, PGM Pers. : Chairman
2. Sh. P.C. Bhatt, Sr.GM CBB Member
3. Sh. Saurabh Tyagi, Sr.GM Estt. : Member
4. Smt. Anita Johri, Sr.GM SR Member
5. Sh. A. K. Sinha, DGM SR Member Secretary

Staff side:

1. Sh Animesh Mitra, President BSNLEU
2. Sh P. Abhimanyu, General Secretary BSNLEU
3. Sh .P. Asokababu, Vice President BSNLEU
4. Sh. Swapan Chakraborty, Dy. General secretary, BSNLEU
5. Sh. C. Santhosh Kumar, CS, BSNLEU Kerala
6. Sh. Islam Ahmed, President NFTE (BSNL)
7. Sh. Chandeshwar Singh, General Secretary NFTE (BSNL)
8. Sh. K.S. Seshadri, Dy. General Secretary NFTE (BSNL)

At the outset, Sr. GM(SR) welcomed the worthy Chairman and all the esteemed participants from management and staff side. It was informed that in the first meeting held on 18.11.2021, the staff side had requested the management side to present a draft proposal in the next meeting for further discussions. The proposal had been drafted and a power point presentation of new scales was shared /discussed.

2.0 Discussions.

2.1 Broad Principles.

At present there are total 33048 non-executive employees comprising of 18553 absorbed employees & 14495 BSNL recruitees and around 30% employees are stagnating.

It was explained to the staff side that new Pay scales have been designed on the following principles:

(1) There is no reduction in the Pay (basic+DA) of any employee after implementation of new pay scales.

(2) Stagnation in the existing pay scales has been largely addressed.

(3) As pension contribution is linked to the maximum of the Pay scale, the new Pay scales have been designed optimally to minimise increase in Pension contribution.

(4) Financial burden has to be minimum so as to make the Proposal viable, as any additional financial burden is to be met only from internal resources of the company.

2.2 Multiplication Factors and Span.

a) It was informed that the Pay scales in 2007 were designed as per details given below:

• Multiplication factor of 1.91 to 1.94 was used for the minimum of the pay scale.
• Multiplication factor of 2.30 to 2.53 was used for the maximum of the pay scale.
• Span of scale was 18 Stages.

b) New pay scales proposed by the management side notionally w.e.f from 1.1.2017 are designed as below:

• Multiplication factor of 2.20 to 2.24 has been used for the minimum of the pay scale.
• Multiplication factor of 2.33 to 2.62 has been used for maximum of pay scale.
• Span of pay scale is from 20-28 stages.

2.3 Financial Impact

Staff side was informed that:

a) New pay scales have been designed to take care of Stagnation issue and BSNL recruitees will get additional benefit on account of increase in EPF contribution by BSNL.

b) The implementation of new Pay scales will result in an additional burden of increased pension contribution in case of absorbees and increased EPF contribution in case of Direct Recruitees.

c) There are a number of CPSUs which are loss making and the government has to decide in totality. Whatever Proposal Joint Committee recommends, should be with minimum financial implication.

d) Feedback was sought from staff side on following points:

i. Will implementation of new pay scale result in any anamolous situation where pay in new pay scales is less than pay in old pay scales?

ii. Will new pay scale remove stagnation in majority of the cases?

2.4 Staff side comments.

The Staff side agreed to examine the draft pay scales proposed by the Management and to discuss in the next meeting. However, they stated that:

• Incase of Executive’s 3th PRC, new pay scales have been fixed by DPE and which cannot be changed. Whereas in case of Non-Executives. already negotiated scales in the earlier held meetings are being proposed to be changed and this will have long term effect on the next pay revision due in 2027.
• The new pay scales should be designed considering Five Percent fitment instead of Zero percent.

3.0 Conclusion.

The management suggested that the staff side can send suggestions/proposals based on the actual Stagnation/pay anomaly cases of the employees for further discussion. The meeting closed with a vote of thanks to the chair, all the participants and to the SR Cell team.

(Sunita Arora)
Deputy General Manager (SR)

All members of the Joint Committee (By name)
Copy to:-
PPS to Director (HR), BSNL Board.

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