NT plans to send home around 1‚800 employees
KATHMANDU:
Nepal Telecom (NT) is planning to cut around 1,800 staff under voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) as part of its restructuring efforts. A committee, including experts, NT management officials and trade union representatives has been conducting a study in this regard.
If the plan goes smoothly, the state-owned company will be able to launch the scheme from early next fiscal year. With growing administrative costs, pension for retired employees and the need to bring the company in good shape to attract a strategic partner, the company for long had been mulling over VRS for restructuring the company.
Buddhi Acharya, managing director of NT, said that once the study is complete, a VRS proposal will be presented to NT Board for approval and implemented. The study will recommend facilities for outgoing staff based on their position and working tenure and ways to provide compensation — whether in a lump sum or in installment. “We are hopeful our staff will welcome VRS,” he added.
NT has a workforce of 5,500 and the VRS is expected to send home some 1,800 of them. After the VRS, the company is planning to limit recruitment of new staff, outsource jobs to other companies and assign maintenance works to vendors under managed service contracts. According to NT officials, trade unions have also agreed to implement the scheme.
Services like those provided through 197, 1498, 181 and of security guards have already been outsourced by the company. An official said that due to lack of proper human resource management planning, many call operators are left twiddling thumbs.
With the company providing utility services like bill payment via banks and recharge cards, the jobs of huge number of staff under account department are at risk and same is the case of technical staff that are not updated with new technology and services of the company.
Over-staffing and increased administrative expenses have been troubling NT for a long time. And it has also been the need of the hour for the company to implement reforms to rope in a strategic partner. NT’s VRS plan is being discussed at the Ministry of Finance as the case is related to the state-owned company.
Acharya said that even as the government owns majority stake in the company, they do not need MoF’s approval to implement the VRS as per a company rule. The government owns 92 per cent stake in NT and plans to divest 30 per cent of its share to a strategic partner. The partnership has been planned since last five years basically for effective management, making the company more competitive, adopting newer technologies and getting rid of rigid procurement procedure of the government.
Source: THT
