Telecom staff stage stir

Hyderabad, Aug 19 :

The telecom services in Andhra Pradesh and the entire country were disrupted on Wednesday with engineers and employees of the state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (Bsnl) decided to go on for a two-day strike. The Bsnl employees are seeking a better wage revision and promotion policy, while the engineers have demanded that senior Department of Telecom officials on deputation be absorbed in Bsnl to fix accountability and improve efficiency.

Over 10,000 engineers affiliated to the All India Graduate Telecom Officers Association (AIGETOA) went on indefinite strike from Tuesday. The United Forum of Bsnl Unions, a group of seven Bsnl employees unions representing over 1.5-lakh non-executive employees, were on a two-day strike from Wednesday.

“We want a pay hike similar to top officials as junior officers and non-executive employees work hard to run the organisation efficiently. We are demanding a five-year periodicity for wage revision with full fitments benefit, while the management is insisting on a 10-year periodicity,” said Bsnl Employees Union general secretary.

The other demands include pay fixation on promotion, annual increment @ 5% on basic pay be granted cumulatively for non-executives along with the revised pay scales wef January 1, 2007 and merger of 50% IDA for pensioners. The strike will also hit customer services like bill collections and fault repairs. To ensure that operations are not disrupted, the Bsnl has set up a control room.