Expect delays in PSU promotions and transfers

GAIL and Bharat Petroleum employees awaiting promotion or transfers will have to wait until after the 21-day Coronavirus lockdown.

This report learns GAIL and BPCL have postponed their annual promotion and transfer orders, despite a DGH directive on March 27 that oil and gas services are essential and must carry on uninterrupted during the lockdown. "This is a sensitive time," explains a GAIL source.

"There is no point releasing the list (of promotions and transfers) because employees who receive transfer orders cannot move." He adds many employees are putting their lives at risk and still working to ensure supplies of gas in line with the DGH directive.

"If we release a list right now, there will be many employees who might get demotivated or demoralised (if GAIL denies promotions)," we hear. "So we are holding off on this year's promotion and transfers list."

In a typical year, GAIL promotes up to 200 officers, based on the past three years of performance, and transfers 250 to new locations. GAIL typically publishes its promotions and transfer list on March 31.

At BPCL, up to 2000 employees are transferred or promoted every year. A source at BPCL echoes the same sentiment.

"In the present scenario, due to the lockdown and Covid-19, people can't move," he says. "So it's pointless sending out the list right now; it will probably go out after the lockdown ends and the situation improves."