BPCL strike: Employees warned against outburst on social media

The management of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), a Maharatna company and the India’s second largest fuel retailer, has cautioned employees against disseminating news against it through social media platforms even as the latter gears up for a 48-hour all-India strike from Monday.

Around 5,000 employees under 15 unions of the BPCL marketing and refineries facilities in Mumbai and Kochi have served a strike notice for Monday and Tuesday against the management decision to sign a long-term wage settlement with clauses favorable for speedy privatisation of BPCL.

A notice put out by the company’s Human Resources (HR) department cautioned that while expressing views or disseminating any information on social media platforms such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter etc, employees must take utmost care to ensure that it does not impact the reputation/image of the Corporation or the Government, which is the majority stakeholder in the company.

The notice went on to add that the BPCL in no way intends to control the information employees choose to disclose on social networking sites. However, the employees must bear in mind the need to protect the reputation of the corporation, privacy of their colleagues and confidentiality of the information related to the Corporation’s business among the public at large.

“It is advised that employees must avoid any information related to intellectual property of the Corporation, any defamatory, offensive or derogatory content while using the social media platform. In case any such incident is noticed, appropriate disciplinary action in line with the applicable CDA rules/standing orders shall be initiated against the employee concerned”, the notice warned.

MG Aji, General Secretary, Cochin Refinery Workers Association (CITU), pointed out that the wage revision in BPCL has been pending since January1, 2017, and the unions have been demanding a wage settlement as per the guidelines of Department of Public Enterprises as done in IOCL, CPCL and ONGC.

Salaries of the BPCL management staff were revised as per these guidelines in common pattern in the oil industry. The unions are demanding the same be applied to them as well, which the management has apparently refused to accept. Aji said that the counter demands put forward by the management could not be accepted.

Prominent among them are acceptance of clauses of sale/purchase agreement for privatisation with the tendering party and curtailment of retirement benefits such as PF, Gratuity, pension, and medical benefits upon privatisation. Aji alleged that the management has refused to convene a meeting for negotiations or agree to discuss and negotiate on various demands.

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