At a BSNL telephone exchange in Bengaluru South, a junior engineer (JE), who survived the recent exodus through Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS), is the lone person sitting amongst empty chairs and tables in a big room, which was abuzz with activity just a week ago. As VRS took away 14 of the 18 working staff, the JE has his hands full now.
The bigger challenge for the JE is coping up with his new work profile. For most of his 29-year career, earlier in the Department of Telecom and subsequently with BSNL, he had worked on the technical front. Now, he is juggling between attending to customer complaints and trying to understand administrative work. On the other hand, many telecom technicians working on contract have left over salaries left pending for eight months. Those who have replaced them are yet to be trained.
Work pressure
The work pressure on the employees is immense after about 6,000 BSNL workers in the State ended their careers on January 31. They were part of the national VRS exodus in which about 78,000 employees exited the telecom PSU. The staff strength of BSNL Karnataka Circle is down from 10,117 to 3,936. The number of contract workers had dwindled from 5,779 in July 2018 to 3,439 by October 2019, and it has only gone down further now.
For example, at a large exchange in Bengaluru South, 72 out of 78 technical staff members opted for VRS. In several exchanges with nearly 10,000 lines, there are two technical workers left to attend to service calls, which will be managed through people hired on contract.
Earlier, the work was divided into cabling, outdoor (for line faults, new lines, and shifting lines), and indoor (switchroom work and others) divisions. Now, the surviving employees have been asked to manage all the work by themselves. “But complaints are being addressed,” a technical staff member in Bengaluru West said. However, he wondered whether he could take leave at all in the present situation.
The VRS frenzy was such that BSNL received enquiries about its future from large public sector enterprises, including banks in the city, and senior officials had to allay fears of a service breakdown. “Most BSNL customers are long-standing and loyal. Large business houses have continued with us,” a senior official said.
Meanwhile, about 70% of the customer service centres have been outsourced to franchisees. At one such centre, only new SIM activation, top-up/recharge services, and bill payment for landline connections are offered. “For new connection, Broadband, FTTH (fibre-to-the-home) and other services, we are yet to be trained because we have come in new,” a woman at the help desk said. “Customers will not have issues as bill payment can be done at post offices and Bengaluru One and Karnataka One centres. It may take a fortnight or so for things to settle down,” a source said.
According to an office-bearer of the Bengaluru Circle BSNL Employees’ Union, with this kind of staff strength there is also a fear of exchanges being shut down. “If BSNL’s losses are connected to employees, whose numbers have now been brought down, why is it that private telecom players who have a lean staff strength are also saddled with losses?” he asked. “Unfortunately, when BSNL was doing well in the early years after starting mobile services, equipment was delayed. When the equipment arrived after 2010, employee numbers declined; both of this affected service quality. Now, with 4G being rolled out in the next few months, we do not have the staff to provide services,” he said.
‘Measures in place’
Amid jitters, senior officials said that several measures were initiated in time, including identifying critical activities, remapping of employee postings, and putting a contingency plan in place. “Work profiles have changed and pressure also has increased. But there is no other way. Services have not deteriorated,” he said. Meanwhile, owing to fund crunch, across Karnataka BSNL has not paid power bills, but has received backing from the State government to clear its dues after its financial position improves.
“The telecom sector is capital-intensive and we are hoping that the government will lends a helping hand to ensure that the PSU that connects the country survives,” said an officer optimistically.
(Names of employees and telephone exchanges withheld on request)
