Hunger strike at BSNL over pay slash

SHILLONG: The Joint Forum of BSNL Executives Association launched its three-day hunger strike here on Tuesday in protest against reduction in pay scale in the cadre of JTO/JAO/SDE/AO by the Department of Telecommunications (DOT) and the inordinate delay in formulation of BSNL HR Policy.
The employees under the banner of Sanchar Nigam Executive Association (SNEA) will continue their strike till April 27 which will be followed by a mass casual leave on April 28.
SNEA secretary Sushil Tripathi said that the employees have been forced to agitate for their rights. “Our pay scale in basic cadres has been demoted and promotions have been stopped till D.E. level and till date no concrete steps have been taken to address the issues, leading to dissatisfaction in the grassroots level engineers of the department,” Tripathi added.
He, however, assured that day to day services of BSNL will not be affected as it is a relay hunger strike.