PSU general insurance companies have offered a very low wage hikes of seven per cent with immediate effect without any past arrears since August 2017 or wage hike of five per cent along with two per cent arrears

Rejecting all the offers of the GIPSA, the unions have demanded a wage revision at par with Life Insurance Corporation(LIC) with effect from August, 2017

GIPSA advised the associations to come back with counter offers or submit white paper on it within seven days of the new offer, latest by 30th June, 2022.

The government last year had agreed on a 16 per cent wage revision with arrears and 15 per cent similar hikes with arrears for the employees of LIC and PSU banking industry respectively

New Delhi:

The stalemate over wage revision of PSU general insurance industry’s workforce has continued as the PSU general insurance companies, facing shortage of capital and shrinking business, have offered a very low wage hike of seven per cent with immediate effect but without any past arrears since August 2017 to their employees, that have been outrightly rejected by all the employee unions in the industry.

Alternatively, at the instance of ministry of finance, the GIPSA, the official coordinating agency of all PSU general insurers, has offered an immediate wage hike of five per cent along with two per cent arrears with effect from August 2017.

However, rejecting all the offers of the GIPSA , the unions have demanded a wage revision at par with state owned Life Insurance Corporation(LIC) with effect from August, 2017.

The government last year had approved a 16 per cent wage revision with arrears and 15 per cent similar hikes with arrears for the employees of LIC and PSU banking industry respectively.

On the GIPSA’s offer of two per cent  arrears, the unions have commented that the insurance employees should not be treated as beggars and they deserve a respectable wage revision. It was pointed out by the unions that this wage revision pertains to 2017 when all the companies were making profits and paying dividends. 

The unions have reminded the government that there has been a tradition to have a wage revision in the PSU general insurance industry that on par with LIC . 

“It was clearly stated that the offer is not acceptable to us and we shall not accept anything less than what has been given to LIC,’’ said Vishnu Aggarwal, additional secretary general, National Confederation of General Insurance Officers’ Association.

Creating further uncertainty for an early conclusion of  the already delayed wage negotiation exercises , the unions in the PSU insurance industry on Wednesday have rejected the latest proposal from the companies as they have fallen short of their basic demands

In a meeting on Wednesday between GIPSA and unions of  PSU general insurers, Suchita Gupta, chairman of GIPSA, who is also CMD of National Insurance Company (NIC), unveiled the offer of seven per cent, without any arrears, hike on behalf of the companies  

Gupta had informed that the MoF wanted performance based wage revision but GIPSA and the company managements convinced the ministry to go without such a condition for this time.

Further, Gupta  advised the associations to come back with counter offers or submit white paper on it within seven  days of this offer, latest by 30th June, 2022.

The unions drew the attention of the management towards the dedicated work done by employees of PSU general insurers at the cost of their lives during pandemic where the industry has lost more than 250 employees. 

In today’s meeting, GIPSA was also requested to follow up with ministry regarding 14 per cent management contribution to NPS and improvement in family pension.

Industry sources observed that due to the deficit capital situation which has impacted the solvencies of three PSU general insurers, NIC, Oriental Insurance Company(OIC) and United India Insurance(UII), in the last few years, the government has not been able approve the wage revision of 60,000 employees of the entire PSU general insurance sector.

It should have already happened soon after similar exercises were completed for the employees of LIC and PSU banking sector last year, said industry observers.

Back in April,2021,the management of LIC and the unions representing around 1 lakh employees of the insurance behemoth had agreed on an overall 16 per cent wage hike, which would be effective from August, 2017.

Earlier, with the conclusion of the 11th Bipartite Wage Negotiations in November, 2020, over 8.5 lakh employees, majorly from public sector banks (PSBs), got a 15 per cent pay hike from November 1, 2017,

However, in case of PSU general insurance industry, the GIPSA , has not even sent the proposal to the ministry of finance(MoF) as three of the member companies don’t have the capacity to bear the extra burden of paying higher salaries to their employees after the finalisation of the latest round wage negotiation for the entire industry.