BSNL engineers on an indefinite strike

New Delhi: More than 10,000 BSNL engineers today went on an indefinite strike. Other employees of the state-run telecom provider would also cease
work alongwith the engineers for the next two days from midnight Tuesday, affecting its services across the country.

The All India Graduate Telecom Officers Association (AIGETOA) of engineers went on an indefinite strike demanding that officers on deputation from the department of telecom be absorbed into the company so that they become more accountable.

The United Forum of seven BSNL Unions of 1.5 lakh non-executive employees will begin their strike at 0000 hrs on August 19 over a demand for wage revision and implementation of a promotion policy.

The strike by the engineers would impact operations of the telecom firm as most of the striking engineers are head technical teams in different zonal offices. Customer services like collections and fault repairs would also be affected from tomorrow because of the participation of the non-technical staff, according to the unions.

The BSNL management was not available for comments on the impact of the strikes. However, to ensure that the strike does not disrupt operations, BSNL has set up a control room for managing the system during the strike.