The Central government has issued a guideline to private firms that they must not terminate employees during the lockdown period. However, BSNL, a Central Government enterprise is involved in the termination of contract employees. It is unacceptable that a Central Government undertaking is involved in activities that are against the Government order.
Coimbatore: "The Centralgovernment has issued a guideline to private firms that they must not terminate employees during the lockdown period. However, BSNL, a Central Government enterprise is involved in the termination of contract employees. It is unacceptable that a Central Government undertaking is involved in activities that are against the Government order" accused Coimbatore MP P R Natarajan in a press release.
BSNL must therefore pay the contract employees their pending salary and give up on terminating the contract employees, insisted MP P.R. Natrajan.
He further asserted, "More than 5,000 contract employees are working at BSNL and the salary they are paid is one fifth of what the permanent BSNL employees receive.Only after continuous measures by these employees social welfare schemes like the EPF and ESI have been implemented for them. However, they have not been paid their salaries for more than 10 months. In spite of many protests and voicing it in the Parliament they have still not been paid.
In this situation the Central Government brought about the COVID-19 lockdown from March 25. Even in this critical time the TN BSNL administration is bent on terminating the contract employees who are still functioning without any pay. When the Central Government directed all the private firms to not terminate anybody during the lockdown, it is surprising that BSNL, a Central Government enterprise is keen to terminate its employees now. They are trying to terminate the contract employees under the pretext of a new tender format.
It is sad that the government does not realise that it will lose its credibility and the moral ability to question any discrepancies by private firms by undertaking these terminations. Additionally it is against humanity to terminate the employees who have been unpaid for close to a year.
In the new tender format, even those who have not paid the security deposit are being granted the tender even in these lockdown times. He questioned, "When the person or the administration that received the tender cannot even employ people in the lockdown times, what is the motive behind granting them tender? The attitude that nobody will question them during the lockdown and that they have a free hand to do what they want is not acceptable behaviour."
Slamming the attitude of BSNL in attempting to terminate the contract workers, he said, "People are not even in a situation to gather and protest due to the lockdown. Using this as an opportunity for terminating the employees who have been working without pay and leading miserable lives is something that will not go unnoticed or tolerated. The BSNL must not terminate any of the contract employees. Further their pending pay must be disbursed immediately. The new tender format that threatens the jobs of the existing contract workers must be cancelled and the older format must be followed", he requested the BSNL administration.