Over 77K BSNL Employees Opted for VRS

Over 77,000 employees of state-owned Bharat Sansar Nigam Limited(BSNL) have opted for the recently launched Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS)so far, said an official.

Nearly one lakh BSNL employees are eligible for the VRS out of itstotal staff strength of about 1.50lakh. The effective date of voluntary retirementunder the present scheme is January 31, 2020.

An official of BSNL while quoted by news agency PTI said that thenumber of employees who have opted for the VRS till now has crossed 77,000. "TheBSNL VRS, 2019 that was rolled out recently, will remain open till December 3.BSNL is looking at savings of about Rs. 7,000 crore in wage bill if70,000-80,000 personnel opt for VRS," the official said.

As per the plan, all regular and permanent employees of BSNLincluding those on deputation to other organizations or posted outside thecorporation on deputation basis, who attended the age of 50 years or above, areeligible to seek voluntary retirement under the scheme. The amount of ex-gratiafor any eligible employee will be equal to 35 days salary for each completedyear of service and 25 days salary for every year of service left untilsuperannuation.

On the other hand, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) too has rolled out a VRS for its employees. The scheme, based on the Gujarat Model, will be open for employees till December 3, 2019. The Union Cabinet had last month approved a plan to combine MTNL – which provides services in Mumbai and New Delhi – with BSNL that services the rest of the nation.