Employees protest against anti-workers’ policy, privatisation move
SHILLONG: Executive and non-executive employees of BSNL here stayed away from work as part of a nationwide strike on Thursday against the Centre’s ‘anti-workers policy’ and corporatisation of the telecom company.
Akbar Syiemlieh, circle secretary of the National Federation of Telecom Employees, BSNL, NE-I circle, said, “The strike is against the anti-workers policy of the Central government. Previously we were known as the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) under the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. The government has corporatised in the name of BSNL and now again from BSNL they want to transform it to Tower Company.”
Syiemlieh said 100 per cent FDI would be regularised if the Centre succeeded in implementing the concept of Tower Company.
“BSNL will be privatised if Tower Company comes into place and it will affect the workforce as well as the masses as private companies are exploiting poor subscribers. The public will fall prey to the strategy of private companies. This time, the Central government has sorted out the policy with the cabinet to convert BSNL to Tower company (100 per cent privatisation),” he added. The NE circle secretary said with privatisation, charges for data entry will be higher and “this will be harmful for all mobile users”.
Highlighting on the Tower Company, Syiemlieh said, “There are some shares with private companies like Vodafone, Aircel, Airtel as they are using our tower and equipment, now the government has played a policy to hand over the entire assets of BSNL to the private companies. This is very dangerous, especially for the workforce in the BSNL as there are more than 3,15,000 workers who will be affected due to the notorious policy of the government.”
Referring to the FDI in the telecom sector he termed it as a globalisation policy. Speaking on the competitiveness of the company, he said, “For private companies, people still face problem when it comes to connectivity as service goes down, subscribers will face a lot of problems when privatisation of telecommunications will take place.”
He added that BSNL has been able to provide the much needed telecommunication services to the people of the State.
When asked about their next course of action, Syiemlieh said, “It is an all-India strike. The agitations will, however, not be ceased as we want to defeat the central government’s anti-workers policy as they want to privatise BSNL.”