NTC to lay off 796 employees

Nepal Telecommunication Company (NTC) has decided to bid farewell to at least 796 of its staff as per the voluntary retirement scheme (VRS).

A meeting of the company board chaired by Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya, secretary of the Ministry of Information and Communication, Wednesday took the decision in this effect.

As per the decision, the employees, who have served the company for more than 25 years, will be benefited by the scheme.

VRS is a method used by companies to reduce surplus of staff. Also known as ‘golden handshake’ scheme, it’s applied in various government and private companies. However, the service tenure and age limit is different country to country.  

This is the first golden handshake offer in the history of the NTC, and the farewell scheme will start from Saturday, informed Buddhi Prasad Acharya, managing director of the company.

The oldest telecom service provider of the country has decided to reduce employees in a plan to lessen the financial burden to the company. The company currently has around 5,100 staff.

“We had announced the golden handshake scheme targeting the employees that have long served the company. The telecommunication technology has been rapidly upgraded in the last decade so we need new engineers and other administrative staffs,” said Buddhi Prasad Acharya, managing director of the company.

The company needed young human resources who could contribute for new management system and have better understanding of latest telecommunication technology.

“In the long run the VRS will help cut down the operation cost, enhance efficiency of the staffs and increase profit.”

He informed, in the first phase, 822 employees, grade 1 to 11, applied for the VRS.

Remaining employees, who have applied for VRS, will be allowed to have that facility in the second phase.

Those who are willing for the VRS will receive amount up to Rs. 10 million including their gratuity, salary of their remaining tenure and money as per their service assessment grade, said the company.

The government owned Telecommunication Company is facing tough competition from the private sectors. Therefore, we needed competitive employees, NTC said.