Mumbai, December 28: BSNL has proposed a new voluntary retirement plan, VRS 2.0, and announced that it would reduce thousands of employees to improve its financial balance. The BSNL layoffs would impact around 18,000 to 19,000 employees as the company focuses on reducing costs. This comes as the company announced to slowly roll out advanced network technologies such as 4G and 5G across major Indian cities, towns, and villages. 

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, a government-run telecommunication company, proposed a new voluntary retirement plan (VRS) and requested approval via DoT (Department of Telecommunication) to reduce the workforce to trim down costs. BSNL asked the authorities to approve INR 1,500 crore to put an end to VRS 2.0. Barclays Layoffs: British Multinational Bank Fires 15 Wall Street Bankers Before Christmas 2024 Holidays Without Offering Bonuses, Affected File Lawsuit.

The latest request from the government's telecom company would reduce the number of employees from 18,000 to 19,000 to lower the wage bill. The BSNL layoffs would help the telecommunication giant reduce up to 38% of the government's spending on workforce management and make the balance sheet healthier in the process.

Currently, BSNL spends around INR 7,500 crore to manage its workforce, and with this proposal, the company aims to reduce up to INR 5,000 crore a year. The telecom firm filed a staff reduction request with the communications ministry. However, the request would require approval from the Cabinet and finance ministry.

On Monday, BSNL approved the VRS plan to reduce the wage bill; however, it will still be discussed as the company only considered the voluntary retirement scheme internally. This step is taken by the company amid the nationwide rollout of 4G and upcoming 5G services.

In FY24, BSNL revenues were INR 21,302 crore, a slight improvement compared to last year's INR 20,699 crore. The BSNL workforce includes the following numbers - 25,000 executives and 30,000 non-executives, totaling 55,000. In 2019, the Indian government approved the revival plan of INR 69,000 crore for BSNL and MTNL employees. Around 93,000 opted for the voluntary separation scheme, and INR 17,500 crore for pensions, commutation and gratuities amounted to VRS. Tech Layoffs 2024: 539 Companies Let Go 1,50,034 Employees This Year; Yahoo, AMD, Ola Electric and Others Latest to Layoff Staff From November to December.

Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) operated its mobile network across Delhi and Mumbai. The revival plan included BSNL and MTNL's asset monetisation and 4G spectrum allocation.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 28, 2024 12:30 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).