Latest News

Meeting with EPFO Sections Trivandrum

Details

Published on Saturday, 23 December 2017 01:49

AIGETOA team met EPFO authorities along with various guidelines and recent two interim orders from HC Kerala with regard to EPF Full pension Contribution.

The meeting lasted around two hours and they briefed us the exact issue and EPFO stand on our claim and various Court orders. As per EPFO legal section ,from October 2015 to March 2017 around 1580+ cases filed by EPS members belonging to Exempted, Unexempted organisations are awaiting final judgement which is expected in January-2018.

Around 225+ interim directions from April 2017 to till 22/12/17 which includes two orders from BSNL recruits recently delivered also under receipt.

EPFO will handle our orders in line with the expected Judgement & if it is favourable to EPF applicants , EPFO will move for Govt decision. For further details the EPF coordinators from Aigetoa/ DS/DP may be contacted.

EPF Full Pension Option Processing

Details

Published on Friday, 22 December 2017 08:40

It is learnt that the second Applicant set for EPF Full pension case at Hon.HC , Kerala also got favourable interim direction on individual Member name itself.

Click here for the Hon.HC ,Kerala Direction of first EPF full pension Case from BSNL.

Meeting AIGETOA Circle team with Circle Office administration

Details

Published on Friday, 15 December 2017 22:19

Issuance of  TBP Orders 

We have once again communicated  the inordinate delay  in TBP ( E2-E3, E3-E4 ) issuance by SSAs and Circle office, surprisingly in this year, where majority for TBP are BSNL recruited executives and many of the DRs TBP are due from 01-01-2017. We requested to do the needful to complete the process by December-17,  in line with  corporate office orders & payment of arrears at the earliest. 

Click here for the letter submitted 

EPF Full pension Option Processing

Our team met HR & Finance wing and requested for early collection of  all EPF option forms which was taken by SSAs for further processing. We had shown the direction from Hon High Court, Kerala and requested for early expedition. 

EPF Full Pension Case at Hon. HC Kerala

Details

Published on Wednesday, 13 December 2017 21:18

On the very first hearing of Writ Petition for EPF Full Pension case, Petitioners got the interim direction from Hon. High Court, Kerala  directing RPFC Tvm & PFC Ekm to collect the pension contribution of the 307 petitioners (Saheer & 306 Ors) on the basis of actual salary drawn from the date of joining of the pension Scheme.

To utilise the opportunity opened now All the BSNL Recruits who wish to get EPF Full pension whose EPF accounts are maintained at PFCs ,Kerala should file the case in group at the earliest.

All interested BRs (executives/ non-executives) may please contact the SSA BR Coordinators.

SSA Coordinators for EPF Case

TWO DAYS STRIKE

Details

Published on Monday, 11 December 2017 20:39

TWO DAYS STRIKE ON 12 & 13 DECEMBER 2017

PENDING ISSUES OF 2ND PAY REVISION

3RD PAY REVISION WITH 15% FITMENT

NO TOWER SUBSIDIARY FORMATION

Make the strike with 100% participation.

Congratulations to Sri.Abraham Sundeep Thomas, SDE BB&Installation, PTA

Details

Published on Saturday, 09 December 2017 14:00

Aigetoa Kerala proudly extend the hearty congratulations to  Sri.Abraham Sundeep Thomas, SDE BB&Installation, PTA on his achievement of Vishisht Sanchar Seva Padak, Kerala Circle. He was felicitated by CGMT, BSNL Kerala Circle and other Senior officers in a function held on 8/12/17 at Circle office.

Session on EPF & SAB Pension at Ernakulam SSA

Details

Published on Thursday, 07 December 2017 07:57

A session on EPF awareness was conducted at Ernakulam SSA by EPF authorities on 06-12-2017 - through the active persuasion by AIGETOA Ernakulam and with help of BSNL Management.

Along with the EPF class,  an informative session on Super Annuation Pension Scheme in BSNL was also conducted by AIGETOA. Our Circle VP Sri. Maxmilan along with Executive committee Member Sri. Rajith M.G handled the session - which turned to be very useful for BSNL recruits. (Above 80 Nos of BRs participated from EKM SSA) 

Click here for the ppts on SAB updated   EPF1   EPF2

Congratulations to new entrants in JTO Cader DR & LICE

Details

Published on Friday, 01 December 2017 06:40

AIGETOA Kerala wishes warm welcome to all the JTO Trainees who are allotted for field training to different Bas in Kerala from DR & LICE batches.

Field training allotment List of DR JTO Trainees who will be completing the Phase-1 training from Rajpura RTTC Punjab by 1/12/2017. Click here for the list.

It is to be noted that despite some preference requests for the BAs where vacancies already available, it has been ignored by the administration. This was already informed with circle administration and hopefully by next batch onwards the requests from the DR batch JTOs will be taken care duly.

Field training allotment List of LICE JTO Trainees who will be completing the Phase-1 training from Trivandrum RTTC  & Indore. Click here for letters & list-1,2

The posting of departmental ( LICE ) JTO trainees are duly taken care by administration as per the normal practice followed from time to time  ie posting in the same BA where they were working, while the change of BA personal requests from  officials (  the officials marked ** in the list ) also considered as per merit.

AIGETOA extends once again its heartiest welcome to all the JTO trainees to  the executive fraternity and wholeheartedly welcome them to be the part of BSNL recruits platform. AIGETOA is the single umbrella which stood & standing firmly for BSNL Recruits Community to represent DR/ BR grievances at all levels of management, legal battles & made aware of BSNL recruits rightful dues.

SAB update

Details

Published on Saturday, 25 November 2017 09:35

It is learnt that Establishment cell of BSNL CO has issued instructions to Corporate Accounts cell for raising the quantum of BSNL Contribution in Superannuation Fund from existing 3 percent to 5 percent. This is another step in right direction.

BSNL counter closure at CIAL , Ernakulam

Details

Published on Tuesday, 21 November 2017 17:41

Our Circle team represented the matter with CGMT, Kerala regarding taking necessary measures to function the BSNL counter at Cochin International Airport.

Click here for the letter submitted

Final Hearing & Judgement by Hon'ble Madras High Court

Details

Published on Sunday, 19 November 2017 11:56

The case for footnote 2 came for hearing in Hon'ble Madras High Court and the final hearing was held on 2nd November 2017. The judgement copy has been received today on 16 November 2017.

Hon'ble High Court has recognised the grievance of AIGETOA that the interests of the engineering graduates who have been recruited directly by BSNL has been overlooked. Hon'ble Court observed that in normal course, it is expected that when ever there is a promotional post for which persons from different cadre would be considered, it would be done by fixing them in a common pool and also a ratio for considering incumbents from each cadre. Hon'ble Court observed that petioners AIGETOA are aggrieved against the equation of the non engineering graduates, who are the existing incumbents for the posts of DE/DGM/CAO on the basis of footnote introduced to the recruitment rules and thereby depriving the petioners, who are engineering graduates.

Hon'ble Court agreed that there is some ambiguity with regard to such equation by way of the footnote to the recruitment rules. Hon'ble High Court observed that in equating the existing incumbents with the Direct Recruits, who possess the engineering graduation, it appears that there is some deprivation for the engineering graduates who are direct recruitees, the reservation/priority is not based on any method of equation or ratio. Hon'ble bench observed that this aspect requires clarification at the end of BSNL. Hon'ble Court directed BSNL that such disputes shall be gone through by forming a committee by BSNL to sort out the ambiguity in equating the direct recruitees and the existing incumbents, which exercise shall be completed within a period of three months from the date of receipt of the copy of the orders.

Delay in processing of SAB Nomination from BSNL Recruits

Details

Published on Wednesday, 15 November 2017 19:13

The BSNL recruited employees are the deprived lot due to the delay by management for realisation of the justified 30% SAB in line with departmental guidelines- GOI , which make BRs at least some tandem with retiral and pension benefits of absorbed employees (for whom BSNL already pays monthly pension contribution post medical retirement reimbursement from BSNL date of formation). In the due 30% SAB for BRs, only a part percentage ie. EPF 12% and Grativity 4.5 % are only under actual realisation, where as the remaining 13.5% (PMRB, Pension Scheme etc) are yet to be materialised in full.

All the BSNL recruits need to submit the SAB nomination form duly signed at the earliest as per the BSNL corporate office BSNL Pension Scheme circular dated 28/9/17. In Kerala, even though Circle office endorsed the letter to staff on 11-10-2017, the collection of forms / intimation to all BSNL recruits are still pending in some SSAs. AIGETOA being the pain stake holder in materialising the SAB benefits to BSNL recruits, we have represented the inordinate delay caused in the same with CGMT, BSNL Kerala

All DS/DPs may do the needful, so that all our BSNL recruits irrespective of association/ cader are informed and submit the same. Measures may be made to inform the SSA administration about the importance and processing of the same instead of confuse it with EPF option.

Click here for the letter submitted

EPF informative session conducted at Kannur

Details

Published on Sunday, 12 November 2017 22:53

AIGETOA Kannur arranged an EPF AWARENESS PROGRAMME at Conference Hall, BSNL Telephone bhavan Kannur on 09/11/2017 Thursday 2 pm.

The class was handled by Mr.ANIL VENGATH, Sr.SSA, EPF KANNUR and Mr.MAHESH, DEO, EPF KANNUR.

Almost all the BRs who are the members of the EPF Scheme attended the class. The session was very useful. The lapse from management side wrt delay in collecting the full pension option etc were clearly discussed along with various benefits of EPF scheme and pension.

View photos here

AIGETOA Stand on proposed CPSU Cadre Hierarchy & the Comparative analysis with regard to loss & benefit associated with it

Details

Published on Monday, 06 November 2017 08:44

It is learnt that management committee of BSNL board has approved the draft for the Proposed CPSU hierarchy implementation in BSNL. With the inception of this policy, functional promotions in executive cadre will be time bound up to the level of AGM/DE/CAO.

The concept of the cluster based CPSU hierarchy was mooted by AIGETOA since beginning and now after a time gap of 17 years since formation of BSNL, management as well as other stake holders realized the importance and significance of a time bound functional promotion policy. AIGETOA wanted a contemporary CPSU hierarchy policy based on performance, qualification weightage and service weightage. The current policy is lagging in all these importance parameters and hence it fulfils only some part of our aspiration and there is a lot to achieve. However, this is one step in right direction similar to management step of making SAB contribution from 3 percent to 5 percent. We have to go a long way and that can be achieved through unity, faith and patience.     

The intent of the new policy is apparently to introduce a rugged and strong mechanism for promotions, but still we feel that still there is a lot to include. The aspirations of the Direct Recruits have not been taken care of fully. Incorporation of clauses like 12 years residency period from SDE/AO to AGM/DE and doing away with qualification requirement for promotion to DE/AGM posts, not giving enough weightage to performance is not in line with the considerate stand of AIGETOA.

Further, AIGETOA has time and again categorically stated that pending promotions should be executed first and then BSNL should move on to the CPSU hierarchy proposal. Now with approval of the proposal in Management Committee and the same is now to be discussed and approved by full Board of BSNL, We demand that this intervening period should be used for executing the pending promotions and to be more specific for declaring the posting orders of LDCE passed executives and DPC orders of JTO to SDE failing which we will be constrained to take the matters in court of law as we don't want any policy which remains marred with litigations and cases. Decision to take the proposal to board instead of management committee is also a right step as moving on to time bound functional promotion is big change from the current scenario and implementation of any such big policy without the concurrence of board is not going to stand in the court of law and the sanctity of such policy will always remain in question.

Through various stages of deliberations, we have ensured that the interest of Direct Recruits remains protected in the new proposal. Conditions like extending deemed SDE to LDCE 2015 passed candidates and their DPC counter parts, keeping the seniority of the LDCE 2015 passed candidates intact, providing similar weightage to them as would have been given to them if posted as SDE,getting one year service weightage for them, considering their transfer applications while posting them as SDEs, getting service weightage for JTOs, ensuring vacancy year quota for LDCE vis-a'-vis DPC candidates and vice versa for promotion to AGMs and maintaining the seniority list for promotion to next scale based on vacancy year of SDEs, removing minimum service clause of 10 years as SDE/AO – now the promotions to AGM post shall be extended to DRs in 7 to 10 years for SDE to DE ( except LDCE passed SDEs of 2007 who will get in 11 years), and 7.5 years for AO to AGM, removing the capping of number of posts at AGM level and making AGM posts independent of number of posts,  continuance of Time Bound Financial upgradation along with this CPSU Hierarchy etc.  Had these protection clauses not been there, the promotions to AGMs would have been delayed further and interests of DRs (both Telecom as well as Finance) would have been badly compromised. With the existing policy, our first DR would have been promoted as AGM (LDCE passed SDEs of 2008) somewhere in 2027. This is big gain but not big enough to fulfil our aspirations and long pending dues of BSNL recruited executives.

Our efforts, deliberations, inputs since inception of AIGETOA had at last succeeded and made others including management to realise that CPSU hierarchy is the only solution for overcoming the complexities involved with the current HR scenario of BSNL. We have discussed the things and scenarios with our Joint Forum counterparts in a healthy and conducive atmosphere and with a right perspective of securing the interest of DRs. It is further to highlight that still the policy is not fully according to the expectations of AIGETOA/BSNL Recruited executives but is definitely better than what we are getting now. Click here for a comparative analysis

From the analysis, no doubt, executives, who joined earlier, are at loss vis-a'-vis if the CPSU would have been implemented from day one but still it is far better than the current scenario and anything which can make present better cannot be blindly opposed. The time which has gone cannot be reverted but at least present and future can be made better.  For youngsters and late entrants, this policy is almost at par if the CPSU would have been implemented from the day one.

Saying above does not mean that we have agreed whatever has been offered by management as of now. We feel and demand that ongoing promotions should be extended first before implementation of CPSU hierarchy and during the intervening period, we will leave no stone unturned to achieve that.We feel that residency period of 12 years is too high as even in normal channel of the proposed policy, the residency period is 5+5 i.e. 10 years, so anything above that cannot be accepted at all as already one more level of Sr SDE has been incorporated in between. We feel that qualification clause has been compromised in the CPSU policy and we will make all efforts to get weightage for Professional degree and diplomas in the policy. Any CPSU policy without discussion on fast track methodology in place of MT will not be complete and it will be our effort to ensure that when the policy is discussed in board, new proposal for fast track policy should also be in the proposal. We cannot allow any going back from the stand that there should not be any MT cadre in BSNL above the level of JTO/JAO and hence we cannot postpone discussion on fast track methodology. BSNL management has to implement the CPSU policy taking into account the fast track promotion methodology and AIGETOA will ensure its implementation along with proposed CPSU policy. 

Some apprehensions are being raised with regard to the scenario with respect to the pending approval of replacement scales of E1A and E2A by E2 and E3. The functional designations will be extrapolated over the new scales once approval from DoT is received. The scales have nothing to do with the name of the posts. The new scales will be adopted in the proposed policy. The same has already been conveyed by management side. Executives need not be confused over this. E2 in place of E1A and E3 in place of E2A is our considerate stand and we cannot and will not allow any compromise on that.

Comparative analysis with regard to loss & benefit associated with it. Click here