খবরের শিরোনামঃ VRS withdrawal in merger plan may hurt employees’ interest

খবরের তারিখঃ ২০১৫-১২-০৯

-Ishtiaq Husain
The removal of Voluntary Retirement Scheme in merger proposal of Robi Axiata Ltd and Airtel Bangladesh Ltd could hurt the interests of the employees, said a BTRC official. He said the BTRC wanted to continue the employees’ scheme, but had to exclude the option due to immense pressures from the authorities of the two mobile phone operators. In September, Robi and Airtel applied to the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) for permission to merge. BTRC then decided at a commission meeting that there must have an option before merging into a single entity for the employees who are not interested to join the new company. A BTRC official said the regulator has laid emphasis on the job security of the employees after the two operators get merged. The commission also decided that no one would be terminated after merger and the two companies would submit detailed documents on the employees’ job security. “We don’t need to endorse this VRS option as high-ups of the both companies have already promised to accommodate all of their employees,” said an official of an operator requesting anonymity. “In global practice, it’s not mandatory to keep VRS option in merger proposal,” he added. He said the VRS system is desirable to keep the freedom of employees to quit job before merger. Another official said the option should create pressure on the managements before sacking any employee. He said if Robi and Airtel continue the VRS system, they will have to pay a huge amount of money to the employees resigning from job as per the international standard. “As they are not willing to pay, the operators are trying to omit the option, but it’s completely against the employee’s interest.” When contacted, Robi’s vice president Ekram Kabir and Airtel’s head of PR Shamit Shahabuddin both declined to make any comment on the merger issue. In the meantime, the BTRC sought details from Robi and Airtel on merger scheme, spectrum merger scheme, numbering amalgamation, services amalgamation, human resource merger scheme and tax-vat clearance certificate. Last week both the companies submitted the documents to the BTRC. Indian telecommunication giant Bharti Airtel and Malaysia-based Axiata Group began talks to merge their operations in Bangladesh last month to create the second-largest mobile phone operator in the country. Robi will have a 75% stake in the merged entity while Airtel 25%, according to the joint application signed by Supun Weerasinghe, chief executive officer of Robi, and PD Sarma, managing director of Airtel Bangladesh, to the regulator. Of Robi’s 75% stake, 70% will be owned by Axiata Group, Robi’s Malaysia-based parent company, and 5% by Japan’s NTT DOCOMO. Earlier in January 2010, Airtel bought a 70% stake in Warid Telecom in Bangladesh for $100,000, which prompted the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General to raise questions about the deal price. Airtel is the fourth largest telecom operator in Bangladesh while it is number one in India. According to BTRC, as of July 2015, Grameenphone — promoted by Telenor — has 53.98m mobile subscribers, Banglalink 32.4m, Robi Axiata 27.9m, Airtel Bangladesh 9m and Pacific Bangladesh Telecom 1.1m. Airtel Bangladesh operates in all 64 districts of the country with a distribution network comprising 152,000 retailers. The company has a 3G network with more than 2,000 3G sites across the country.

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