It was informed that meeting of CMDs, DFS with finance  minister scheduled for 22nd July could not take place as she is detected Covid positive.  A final decision in the matter is expected during the meeting, to be convened after she assumes office,’’ said a letter written by JFTU _ PSGICs

GIPSA had informed the unions “We have recently provided some additional data to DFS to analyse the demand of employees for wage revision. We also understand that above matter is active consideration of DFS and we hope to hear from them soon,’’ said GIPSA letter to the unions

New Delhi:

Showing signs breakthrough, the Joint Forum of Unions and Association of employees & officers in public sector general insurance companies (JFTU _ PSGICs) has  postponed its nationwide two-day strike from July 27^th, after being being assured of serious consideration of their wage revision demand by GIPSA and as finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman is not currently well to take final call on the issue.

GIPSA is the official coordinating body for the four PSU general insurer, New India Assurance, Oriental Insurance Company, National Insurance Company and United India Insurance and GIC Re.

Constituents of JFTU _ PSGICs, which is demanding wage revision of the industry on par with banks and Life Insurance Corporation, will  meet on 5th August to review the situation and decide further course of action.

JFTU Constituents had held a webinar meeting on Monday to take a stock of situation after GIPSA wrote them a letter on Monday saying it was “working seriously and also following up with department of financial services(DFS) to resolve the matter at the earliest.”

“We were informed about the detailed discussions held by JFTU delegations with CMDs to assess the factual position of the issue. It was informed that meeting of CMDs, DFS with finance  minister scheduled for 22nd July could not take place as she is detected Covid positive. A final decision in the matter is expected during the meeting, to be convened after she assumes office,’’ said a letter written by JFTU _ PSGICs to its members.

After in-depth discussions, it was unanimously agreed to keep the strike call in abeyance for the time being, it said .

JFTU constituents will continue regular follow up with DFS, GIPSA and CMDs and constituents will also continue educating  their members by way of gate meetings and stay prepared for industrial relation (IR) action/ strike at a short notice, as warranted.

Earlier, GIPSA had informed the unions “We have recently provided some additional data to DFS to analyse the demand of employees for wage revision. We also understand that above matter is active consideration of DFS and we hope to hear from them soon,’’ said GIPSA letter to the unions.”

In a letter to Suchita Gupta, chairperson, GIPSA, on Tuesday, JFTU has pointed out,“Failure of the DFS and our managements to address the genuine demands of the workforce have created a lot of distrust which needs to be rebuilt. You must have noticed the anguish of the entire workforce throughout the country during strike in these companies on 15th July 2022. Our managements and the DFS need to introspect and address the issues urgently by extending Wage Revision at par with LIC.”

A month back, DFS for PSU general insurance industry had approved a wage revision of 7 per cent but without any past arrears or 5 per cent along with two per cent arrears with effect from August 2017 that have been rejected by the unions.

For banking industry, the DFS had approved a hike of 15 per cent with full arrears in 2020, while for LIC, in 2021, it had allowed a 16 per cent hike again with full arrears from 2017.