Uninor protest: Hundreds of employees left out in the cold

Hundreds of people, consisting of employees of telecom company Uninor and their families, protested at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar about losing their jobs even as telecoms that lost spectrum due to the 2G scam start preparing to wind down operations in the country, in some cases leaving their employees out in the cold.

The employees and their families were reportedly wearing t-shirts bearing the logos of Uninor, the joint venture between Norway’s Telenor and India-based Unitech, and protested against the government, the Hindu Business Line reported.

[caption id=“attachment_279958” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Uninor employees today protested against potential closure. File picture. Reuters”]  [/caption]

The employees also reportedly sought permission from the Supreme Court to continue operations beyond 2 June, the deadline set by the court for the government to quash the 122 spectrum licenses awarded to telecom companies, the report said.

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Threatened with the loss of around 17,000 jobs due to the closure of the company the employees had earlier said they would submit a petition to the Prime Minister and Telecom Minister seeking to continue operations.

The Supreme Court while cancelling the 122 licenses had asked the firms affected by the order to shut down in four months and ordered the government to conduct auction of the cancelled licences in the due time. However, the government has said that the auction would take at least 400 days to conduct which would require firms like Uninor to halt their operations after 2 June till the auction takes place.

Uninor employees aren’t the only ones looking down the barrel. Etisalat had earlier written to its employees that it would not pay salaries beyond March 2012 as it had sought to wind up operations in India.

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Others like Loop Telecom, which is shutting down operations in all circles barring Mumbai, has reportedly said that it has asked its employees to look for alternatives.

“Operations can’t continue beyond June 1. Employees have been asked to look for alternate avenues for which the company will give them sufficient time,” an unnamed senior Loop Telecom official was quoted as saying in an Indian Express report.

Some employees will also have the option of joining operations in the Mumbai circle, the official was quoted as saying.

Sistema Shyam Teleservices which has also lost its licenses and stopped operations has said it will not be laying off personnel presently. Existing telecom companies like Airtel, Reliance and Tata Telecom laid off close to 6,000 people over the last one year, the Indian Express reported. The consolidation in the telecom industry has meant harder times for those looking to leave the companies that are facing imminent closure.

Though the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) may have directed S-Tel and Etisalat DB to resume their mobile services despite facing imminent closure, to ensure continuity of service to telecom subscribers, the outlook for the employees of these firms is bleak.

Even rating agencies have warned of harder times in the sector thanks to the confusion over regulation. “Telcos globally are exposed to regulatory risks, while the intensity is much higher in India in the short term. The Indian sector suffers from an evolving regulatory framework and frequent policy changes, which has negative effect on financial profiles and access to capital,” a Fitch report released yesterday said.