Salaries of BSNL staff to be linked to performance from next year

COME 2017 and the two lakh staff at Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) will have to perform well for salary increment. The state-run telecom operator will link salaries to the performance of its employees from 2017 based on the recommendations from the third pay revision committee (PRC). This notwithstanding the fact that BSNL remains on track to achieve a 15 percent market share.
“2017 is the year when PRC...
recommendations will be placed and the salary of public-sector companies’ employees will be increased and that will also call for the performance-linked pay,” Anupam Shrivastava, BSNL chairman told a financial daily.
The government, on June 9 this year, formed the committee to look into the revision of salaries at central public sector enterprises, and this revision is likely to be delivered to employees in 2017.
The BSNL top executive said since PSU employees were set to get revised salaries in the third PRC recommendations, the performance-related pay would be “strictly implemented” in 2017.
Earlier in September, Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha asked BSNL to consider the implementation of performance-related pay to its staff and look at increasing its market share to 15 percent with a timeline and stay competitive in the sector. "I was just speaking to the telecom secretary that 'performance related pay' is implemented in a lot of places, so why not BSNL also discusses it...instead of imposing it from the top, why don't you all discuss this and tell us whether the telecom department should consider such a proposal," Sinha said at BSNL's Heads of Circle Conference. "Good workers need to be certainly rewarded...but the mindset that salary will come on the first day of the month whether or not work is done...one needs to come out of that mindset," he said. The minister also instructed BSNL to strictly adhere to the deadline of December 2016 for completion of National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) project.
On the PSU’s market share, the minister said, "BSNL's share is currently pegged at 10.4 per cent. Please decide a timeframe for achieving 15 per cent share...It is important to keep an ambitious goal."
Earlier, BSNL CMD Shrivastava said, “This is the most crucial year in the history of BSNL because 2017 will be the year when our salaries are going to be revised as a third PRC (Pay Review Committee), and let me tell you ... unless we are profitable the salary is not going to be revised."
BSNL, with less than a 10 percent market share, has 2 lakh employees on its payroll. It spent nearly Rs 15,000 crore in salaries in 2015.
Growing market share to 15 percent would be a tough task for the telecom PSU which could be attained in sync with its existing revival plan.
Loss making PSU BSNL, which currently has around 91 million subscribers, has been unable to keep up with private sector players, slipping to No. 5 by user base over the years from its leadership position.
“As part of our revival strategy, a number of new customers are boarding BSNL network and we believe that the company is in a position to deliver 15% market share,” Shrivastava said.
BSNL is also working on improving its mobile services quality and effectively arresting call drops by expanding telecom infrastructure. “In the course of this year, we are going to put another 15,000 base transceiver stations that will help upgrade mobile network and further reduce call drops,” Shrivastava noted.