As BSNL employees threaten to go on day-long hunger strike, chairman assures salary before Diwali

BSNL-MTNL: The loss-making public sector telecom giant BSNL has agreed to pay salary for the month of September to its nearly 1.58 lakh employees. Reacting to a report by Financial Express Online, BSNL CMD PK Purwar told a news agency that the PSU will pay salary to its employees before Diwali. He said the BSNL’s salary bill was Rs 850 crore a month, whereas the company revenue inflow was Rs 1,600 crore a month.

Financial Express Online has reported on Monday that the salary of nearly 1.8 lakh employees of two PSUs in telecom sector has not been paid. While the salary of nearly 22,000 MTNL employees has not been paid for the month of August and September, the salary of nearly 1.58 lakh BSNL employees has not been paid for the last month.

Sources in the two PSUs had termed it bit strange as the Union government announced a 5% hike in dearness allowance (DA) of central government employees last week that will cost Rs 16,000 a year on a recurring basis but it did not help the two beleaguered PSUs to pay salaries to their employees during the festive season.