When OT bills speak volumes about rot

In the mid-70s, during the days of Congress rule in the Indian state of West Bengal, now known as Paschimbanga, a phrase was coined locally to explain the state of affairs with the state government's workforce. It was something like: Asbo jabo mainey pabo, kaj korley OT chabo (for coming to office we will get our wages and if we do work we will be entitled to overtime allowance).
The situation, it seems, is even worse in the case of the Biman Bangladesh Airlines, the national flag carrier of Bangladesh. A large number of employees of this organisation, allegedly, do receive overtime allowances worth around Tk. 350 million every year without doing any real work.
There are a few other exceptions in this state-owned organisation; it has most number of trade unions and many white collar professionals have formed their trade unions since those help squeeze undue benefits. They too enjoy OT allowances, at times, without doing any work.
A report published in this paper last Sunday on the OT bonanza, enjoyed by the Biman employees, cited a classic example. It said one Biman employee with his basic salary at Tk. 17600 had drawn a pay package worth Tk. 70,300 for the month of February last. The amount included the OT allowance. The gross salary of the employee in question should not be more than Tk. 35 to Tk. 36 thousand. The rest of the money he received was on account of his overtime 'duty'.  Since the Biman authorities have not contested the content of the FE report, there is valid reason to believe that the report was objective and fair.
The Biman has always been a troubled entity. It had lost its vitality as a commercial organisation long ago because of factors such as widespread graft, irregularities, lack of discipline, incompetence of management and employees as well and frequent muscle-flexing by the trade unions.
The factors, however, are nothing unique in the case of the Biman. Most state-owned enterprises (SoEs) once--- particularly until the mid-eighties--- had faced the same problems. The situation started changing in the following years. The state-owned enterprises, the most of which are perennially loss-incurring, have been on the decline with the emergence of a strong and vibrant private sector. The government has closed down many SoEs and divested many others. Some more are awaiting either closure or divestment.
The Biman is one SoE which saw profit only on four or five occasions during its 43years of existence. The amount of loss it incurred in the past years varied. The figures have been in both millions and billions.  Yet the extent of highhandedness of the trade unions in Biman has never been on the wane.
Allegations have it that the automated access control system, a digital management mechanism that provides accurate picture of attendance of Biman employees has been deactivated, deliberately, soon after its installation in April 2013.  This was done with a view to squeezing out benefit as much as possible in the name of overtime bill.
The FE reporter concerned took the trouble of reaching a CBA (collective bargaining agent) leader of Biman and got an answer that spoke for the level of defiance and highhandedness on the part of trade unions. The CBA leader admitted that the automated access control system had been kept inoperative 'temporarily' to press home a lot of their demands.
The failure of the Biman management to reactivate the system does tell volumes about the power that the Biman trade unions enjoy and also about its own weaknesses.  
However, one man, the immediate past and first alien chief executive of the Biman had tried to streamline things in Biman. He had written to the civil aviation ministry to declare the services of Biman employees essential with a view to keeping their services out of the purview of trade unionism. He, reportedly, also sought the cooperation of the Anti-corruption Commission (ACC) to investigate allegation of corruption in Biman. But his both moves had fallen through in the absence of response from the authorities concerned.  
There is no denying that operation of an airline is a tricky business. Not many airlines, both small and big, are making profits. The Air India, the state-owned airliner of neighbouring India, is also in dire straits, financially. It has been seeking equity supports from the government for quite some time.
The Biman is relatively a small operator in the world aviation industry and it has some genuine problems that could not be addressed primarily due to paucity of resources. But indiscipline and corruption are two factors that have been causing more harm to the Biman. There have no serious efforts on the part of the government to address these two particular issues. The men whom the government puts at the helm of the national flag carrier either bow down to pressure or themselves become a part of the 'system'.
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