Post VRS, employees scarcity: BSNL, MTNL search to rehire the retired

More than a yr after practically 93,000 officers from state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) opted for the voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) supplied by the Central authorities, the 2 firms are going through operational points as a consequence of a employees crunch, sources in know of the event stated.
To overcome the problem, numerous discipline and different connected workplaces of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) have written to the Telecom Ministry, in search of clarification whether or not the workers who had opted for VRS could possibly be “rehired as consultants”.
The DoT has, for now, requested all the sector and connected workplaces to cease any such recruitment of BSNL and MTNL employees who had taken VRS as guide till it examines the matter, a senior authorities official stated.
“This matter is presently under examination in DoT HQs (headquarters) and guidelines in this respect would be issued as and when the decision on this matter is taken. Till then, applications of retirees of BSNL/MTNL under VRS-2019 may not be considered for engagement as consultants,” an official communication of the DoT stated. The Indian Express has reviewed a duplicate of the communication.
The VRS scheme for BSNL and MTNL workers was accepted by the Central authorities in October 2019 as a part of the restructuring and revival plan of the corporate.
Of the 1,53,000 workers working for BSNL when the VRS scheme was accepted in October 2019, over half — 78,569 workers in all — had opted to retire, whereas at MTNL, as many as 14,400 workers, which then was practically 80 per cent of the full employees energy on the firm, had opted to retire.

Most of the workers at BSNL and MTNL who had opted for the VRS have been within the non-executive class and within the age group of 55-60 years, DoT officers had then stated, including that the wage invoice for BSNL can be lower in half, whereas that at MTNL would come down by as a lot as 75 per cent.
For the workers at each the state-run telecom firms, the VRS was opened for a month beginning November 4. The final date for workers who had opted for the VRS at each the telcos was January 31. Any worker, aged 50 or above, at each these state-run corporations was eligible to go for the scheme.
The lump sum compensation or ex-gratia fee to be given to workers of BSNL and MTNL has been mounted at 35 days of wage for every year in service and 25 days of wage for every year left till retirement.
The first instalment of the compensation, which might be 50 per cent of the full fee, was to be paid in 2020-21 whereas the second instalment is prone to be disbursed over the interval of this monetary yr.
While a number of workers at BSNL and MTNL have acquired the primary instalment of their VRS funds, the second has been delayed generally, owing to expenditure cuts following the financial downturn as a consequence of Covid-19 restrictions.

In the Budget for 2020-21, the federal government had allotted Rs 37,278 crore in complete to satisfy the VRS fee obligations in addition to funds for capital infusion in BSNL and MTNL. Of this, Rs 13,194 crore was allotted for the implementation and for ex-gratia funds to workers who had opted for the VRS scheme, whereas Rs 20,410 crore had been allotted for capital infusion for 4G spectrum for BSNL and MTNL.
The revised estimates for the final fiscal, nevertheless, present that whereas the federal government spent Rs 13,366 crore for the VRS scheme, no quantity was spent in capital infusion for both of the state-run telcos. For the present fiscal, the federal government has once more allotted a sum of Rs 20,410 crore meant to be spent for capital infusion and 4G spectrum allocation. For the VRS schemes, a sum of Rs 3,000 crore has been allotted.