Wage Revision talks held today- agreement reached on pay scales - Management Side's proposal for freezing HRA unanimously rejected by the Staff Side.

A meeting of the Joint Committee on Wage Revision of the Non-Executive was held today. All the members of the Staff Side, as well as the Management Side, were present and Shri H.C Pant, Chairman, presided. Discussion continued on the revision of pay scales. The demand of the Staff to increase the maximum of NE 4 and NE 5 pay scales, was not accepted by the Management Side. Hence, the pay scales proposed by the Management Side, in the meeting held on 10.09.2018, were agreed upon.

Thereafter, discussion started on revision of Allowances and Perks. As the first item, discussion on Revision of HRA started. The Management Side stated that, the BSNL Board had already sent proposal to the DoT, on the pay revision of the Executives, wherein payment of HRA is frozen as of 31.12.2016. They also stated that the same would be made applicable for the Non-Executives also. It means, HRA revision will not be given to the Non-Executives, and whatever HRA is being drawn now, would continue. The Management Side justified this, by citing the Company’s weak financial position. They also stated that, if HRA Revision, which comes to Rs.570 crores, is also included in the proposal for Wage Revision, then the DoT would not give it’s approval for the Wage Revision. 

However, the Staff Side unanimously and strongly rejected the proposal of the Management Side and stated that they would not surrender HRA Revision. They told in one voice that, HRA is part of pay and hence it should not be frozen. They strongly demanded that HRA of the Non-Executives should be revised based on the new pay. With this deadlock, today’s meeting came to an end.