Third round of VRS for MTNL

New Delhi, Apr 18 (UNI) Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) today said the third round of Voluntary Retirement Service (VRS) for its employees opened today with 1300 group C and D employees seeking to opt for the scheme.

Those employees whose cases are approved by the management, will be relieved from the rolls of the company from June 1, 2006, MTNL said in a statement here.

As part of the 'right-sizing' move the organisation has embarked on operating voluntary retirement scheme for its employees.

Earlier in the month, the service provider in Delhi and Mumbai had said that all the 612 Group-B officers have been given voluntary retirement utilising Rs 170 crore.

"All 612 Group-B officers have been relieved with effect from April 1. This was for the first time in the history of MTNL that Group-B officers were offered VRS and we are happy on its successful completion," MTNL CMD R S P Sinha said.

This is the third round of the state owned company's move to grapple with a huge work force. Last year, MTNL had separated over 1,900 employees in the Group C and D category.

"No doubt that MTNL still has about 20 per cent extra workforce.

We are trying to leverage it in two ways by increasing the turnover/revenue from our operations and secondly by offering attractive VRS ensuring that they are not at disadvantage," Mr Sinha said.

"We want our retired employees to be happy," he said. MTNL has a workforce of over 51,000 and that of Group-C and D about 42,000, after the VRS schemes.

UNI/RT SS PC1611