BSNL to retrench another 20,000 contract workers: Employees’ union

State-owned BSNL has issued a directive to all its units to curtail expenditure on contract works which is likely to result in retrenchment of around 20,000 workers engaged with the telecom firm through contractors, according to BSNL Employees’ Union.

The union also claimed that 30,000 contractual workers have already been retrenched under the company’s retrenchment process and added that all such workers remained unpaid for more than a year.

The union in a letter to BSNL Chairman and Managing Director P K Purwar said the financial condition of the company has deteriorated after implementation of voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) and the faults in the networks have increased due to shortage of manpower in various cities.