OUT COME OF WAGE NEGOTIATIONS ON 24.01.2015 WITH UNIONS IN L.I.C.

INFORMATION SHARING BY L.I.C. MANAGEMENT

As scheduled, the Information Sharing Session was held with the Unions on 24th January 2015 at World Trade Centre, Mumbai. The management was represented by the Chairman Shri S K Roy, all the Managing Directors ; the officials of CO Personnel ; IT departments. There were no individual discussions on this day. The individual sessions will be held on 11th & 12th of February 2015.

The Managing Directors spoke first. Shri S B Mainak, MD expressed concern over the slackness of market. Smt Usha Sangwan expressed concern over the negative growth in number of policies. She also informed that we were doing well in the areas of Claim settlement ; CC activities. She also said, 'Our biggest strength is people with commitment & integrity.' She assured to be sensitive to the needs of the officers & employees.

Thereafter a presentation on Biometric authentication for data security (not for attendance) was given by Shri Venugopal, ED(IT).  He said that the fingerprints of all the 10 fingers would be taken ; stored in the system. Any one finger can be matched; given access. The standards have been prescribed by the Government.  

Thereafter, the Chairman submitted his views.

The important points of his speech were:-

* Indian economy is a leading one; the most attractive destination for investment worldwide.
* Appealed to keep the office poster free keeping in the sentiment of "Swachch Bharat" campaign.
* Space for notice boards will be provided to all unions.
* Rise in FDI has given opportunity to develop.
* Will work shoulder to shoulder with unions in fulfilling the expectations of customers.
* Extension of cash hours.
* Code of conduct for unions.
* FPI achievement is only 54%; MDRT figures reduced to 50% of last year.
* Products services to be realigned.
* Transfer & mobility policy for Workforce will be circulated ; suggestions invited from unions.

He then offered a wage-rise of 12.5% (revising the earlier offer of 10.5%); appealed the unions not to reject it. He said that improvement was still possible.

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EDITOR

Bank Unions meet Jayant Sinha to press for early wage revision

NEWS ON BANK EMPLOYEES WAGE REVISION:
21.01.2015
NEW DELHI: 
A section of public sector bank employees unions today met Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha to press for early wage revision.
A meeting comes two day after the unions deferred their four-day strike that was to begin today as Indian Banks' Association (IBA) assured that wage issue will be resolved by the first week of February. 
National Organisation of Bank Workers and National Organisation of Bank Officers, under the leadership of Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), met Sinha and submitted the memorandum on the demands of the bank employees, said a statement by the unions.
In a representation to Sinha, it said honest negotiations which could break any stalemate. There was a rise of 17.5 per cent (Rs 4,816.00 crore) on total establishment expenses during the last 9th Bi-partite settlement.
"We request you to kindly intervene and advise IBA to keep above at least the level of last wage revision. If our demand of 19.5 per cent on pay slip component is considered, it may cost (Rs 6,143 crore). So far IBA has offered only Rs 3,937 crore and gap is Rs 2,206 crore," it said. 
Banking Service Recruitment Board (BSRB) should be reconstituted and all the recruitments in banks must be channelised through BSRB and state or region wise. Working of the IBPS is neither satisfactory nor transparent, it suggested. 
Besides, minimum qulification for the post of clerk should be 12th pass instead of graduation. This will bring down the rate of exodus and after 5-6 years of service and banks can get trained and loyal officers, it recommended.

Delegation was represented by Pawan Kumar, Virender Kumar from BMS, Ashwani Rana and Manmohan Gupta from NOBW, S U Deshpandey and Bhale Rao from NOBO. 

...................

Four ways - the Policy Holders will be benefited from Insurance Bill

NEWS & VIEWS ON INSURANCE BILL:
The Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved incorporation of amendments suggested by a Parliamentary select panel in the Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2008 that proposes to raise the foreign investment cap in insurance companies from 26% to 49%. The Rajya Sabha is likely to take up the Bill for consideration and passage next week. Though the increase is composite, meaning, the 49% would be inclusive of all forms of foreign direct investment and foreign portfolio investments, insurers are eager that the long-awaited amendment is one step closer of getting passed and that they'll be able to get fresh investment for the sector.
"The industry was not expecting a composite hike and the foreigner partner were expecting that they will be able to increase their stake up to 49%. So, that's a slight dampener. But we are happy that the long-standing demand is finally being met, in some form," says Sanjay Tripathy, Sr. VP and Head Marketing, Product, Digital; E-Commerce, HDFC Life.
"It is almost certain that all the existing players will need to infuse substantial capital in order to grow and penetrate into uncovered areas more so health insurance players. This will also be helpful to the country where more players will come into operation thereby increasing the competition and better service," added V. Jagannathan, Chairman-cum-Managing Director, Star Health and Allied Insurance.

Apart from the increase in foreign investment cap, there are 110 clauses more in the Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2008.

Here are some amendments that benefit you as a policyholder:

1. No Claims to be rejected after 3 years: To protect the interest of the policyholders better, the period during which a policy can be repudiated on any ground, including misstatement of facts, has been confined to three years from the commencement of the policy or renewal/ revival or date of rider, whichever is later. So, no policy can be called in question on ground of misstatement after three years.
The original Bill had proposed a timeframe of five years, from the existing two year period. "As an insurer, this means, the policy acceptance stage would be even more critical for us now. Since post three years no claims can be rejected, we will have to put a few more checks and balances and stringent analytics to control fraud at the policy issuance stage," says Tripathy of HDFC Life.

2. Steep penalties to curb mis-selling: Under a new section introduced in the amendments, insurers will now be responsible for all acts and omissions of its agents, including for any violation of code of conduct and are liable to a heavy penalty of up to Rs 1 crore. The amendments also propose a fine of Rs 5 lakh has been in case agents offer kickbacks to the buyer of the policy, a common industry practice.

3. Insurers to maintain electronic records: To increase transparency, the amendments propose that the insurance company maintains a record of policies and claims in electronic mode and display the same on its website.

4. Bigger Agent force to increase penetration: Currently, the licensing of agents is done by IRDA. But going forward, appointment of agents is proposed to be done by insurance companies subject to the agents meeting the qualifications, passing of examinations etc. as specified by the authority. However, IRDA will still be empowered to take action against agents under Section 42(4) of the Insurance Act, 1938 and protect the policy-holders interests.
This provision is basically to ease the process of hiring agents and expand their network—an attempt to increase insurance penetration in the country. "Though this will help us recruit faster, because of the steep penalties we also have to ensure we recruit the right people," says Tripathy.
The definition of 'health insurance business' has also been revised to stipulate that health insurance policies would cover sickness benefits on account of domestic as well as international travel. However, it is still not clear whether this would mean all health indemnity plans will now have to cover claims on account of internationals travels or would this risk be covered separately under a different plan.

"NFGIE" - STRUCTURED MEETING WITH NEW INDIA MANAGEMENT ON 14.02.2015

14^th January, 2015.

TO ALL REGIONAL SECRETARIES

Dear Friends,

  

I take this opportunity to thank you all for the success of NFGIE in MBS Election 2015.  The result reflects the trust NFGIE enjoys amongst the NEW INDIANS. It is the fruits of the hard work of all the leaders at grass-root level throughout the year.  The result also underlines the need to undertake some measures to be taken by us to meet the future challenges lying before us.

Biennial Conference of NFGIE is also due. It is my suggestion to hold the said Conference on 14 and 15th  March 2015. The Structure Meeting for Cl-111 will be held on 14th FEB, 2015 and at that time standing Committee will finalise the venue of NFGIE Biennial Conference. It is my suggestion to hold the Meeting at New India Centre to minimize the cost.

Apart from myself and  Working President  1 delegate  each from Chennai, Karnataka ,Kanpur, Hyderabad, Ludhiana and Baroda  is required  to  attend  Structured Meeting.  Apart from these, Mr. Vijay Apte of Pune will be asked to attend the meeting since it will not involve any cost.   Since the no of Representatives in Structured Meeting is limited to 8 outstation delegates only, it is my request to all to kindly cooperate with me.   I have already written a letter to MR. P. Nayak GM (P) to increase the no. of delegates to 12.  Regional Secretaries of  Chennai, Karnataka ,Kanpur, Hyderabad, Ludhiana and Baroda are hereby requested to forward the name of the Delegate to me  and book railway   ticket  for Mumbai  immediately in the entitled class to attend the Structured Meeting on 14th Feb.

 SUJIT BAGCHI

General Secretary 
NFGIE

PAYMENT OF EX-GRATIA To ELIGIBLE EMPLOYEES IN PSGI COMPANIES

FOLLOWING IS THE MAIL CORRESPONDENCE 

From: Arvind Singhal <aksinghal55@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Jan 19, 2015 at 8:09 PM
Subject: Re: Non-Release of Ex-gratia in lieu of Bonus.
To: Sujit Bagchi <sujitbagchi56@gmail.com>

Dear Sujit da,

It has been cleared and conveyed to the Co.s. today.

Regards,

A K Singhal
Chief Executive, GIPSA
Mob. Nos. 83350 80094 & 93503 55005

On 19 Jan 2015 15:56, "Sujit Bagchi" <sujitbagchi56@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Singhalji, 

  

You are aware that Payment of ex-gratia  in lieu of Bonus to the eligible employess  in PSGI Companies is awaiting clearance from MOF  Govt. Of India for quiet  a considerable time.The eligible  employees are getting restive  for this unusual delay. Needless to add that Festive Season, the usual disbursement period  has passed away , it is causing much embrassement for all of us. Pl. do the needful at the earliest to get it clear  from the concerned Deptt. 

Thanking you.

 Sujit Bagchi.

 General Secretary (NFGIE)

Posting of Female employees vis-à-vis Ministry Circular.

21.01.2015

THE CHAIRMAN-CUM-MANAGING DIRECTOR

THE NEW INDIA ASSURANCE CO. LTD

87, M G ROAD, FOR,

MUMBAI  400 001

Dear sir,

Re: Posting  of  Female employees vis-à-vis Ministry Circular.

Hope you are aware of the Circular dtd 23.9.2014 issued by Ministry of Finance (Govt of India ) regarding posting of Female employees on appointment and promotion.  We wrote several letters to you  as Chairman  GIPSA in PSGI Companies for early implementation of the same. It is very unfortunate that though a CONSIDERABLE  TIME has elapsed , it seems that you are not very serious in implementing  the said Circular in the industry ,while the female employees continue to suffer.  For instance, I am citing the Case of a female employee of Bengaluru RO,  Ms. C.S Bharathi (SR No.26672) who was promoted in the current Promotion Exercise  to AO under para 13.2. and  posted to Hasan Branch , a place 200 KM away from her present place of posting Bengaluru. It is not possible  for a lady employee to commute daily  from her residence to Hasan  Branch. On receiving the  Posting Order at Hasan, she appealed   to GM(P)  for  reconsideration of place of posting and submitted papers relating to illness of her husband who  has been  suffering  from spine problem and also retina detachment. Her husband underwent spine surgery some days back.

 At that time, I  wrote  to GM(P) to reconsider the place of posting  and again on 14.1.2015 I spoke to GM (P) for his favourable action in this respect.  GM(P)   informed me that  revised recommendation  from Bengaluru  DGM  is required. Accordingly, I pursued  DGM  Bengaluru  for his sympathetic response in the matter.

    On verifying all these papers DGM Bengaluru was kind enough to  send a fresh recommendation  on Monday (19.1.15) for Ms  Bharathi  CS, at CHANNAPATNA, A PLACE 60 km AWAY FROM Bengaluru  city and possible to commute daily. 

To-day, since morning I am trying to contact Corporate HRM  to know about development in this regard, but without any result . Now, I am placing the whole matter before  you for  immediate action in this respect.  Otherwise , I will have no option but to refer the matter to concerned Ministry against the non-implementation of the said circular.

Thanking You,

Yours faithfully,

Sd/-xx xx xx

SUJIT BAGCHI

GENERAL SECRETARY

NFGIE

Year-End Special: 2015 will be year of opportunities if Insurance Bill is passed

The Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill, which has been passed through the Ordinance route, will shape the course of the insurance industry in the next year.The year 2014 was marked by structural changes for traditional insurance products, guidelines for which were implemented from January.    Besides this, the stock market growth also bought the unit-linked insurance products (Ulips) back into focus. While this led to premium growth for some life insurers, overall industry growth remained muted, with players like Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) seeing a premium drop in April-September period.

Similarly, on the non-life insurance side there was a slower rate of premium growth due to the slowdown in the auto industry. With a large portion of premiums coming from the motor segment, drop in sales led to a lower growth rate in motor insurance premium and hence overall premiums.Gopal Balachandran, CFO, ICICI Lombard General Insurance, said as the headwinds to growth subside with efforts from policy-makers and an overall improvement in the macroeconomic scenario, the industry is expected to pick up pace.

The general insurance industry mirrors the prospects of corporate investment and retail growth. Any incremental momentum on these fronts will positively impact the industry growth, he added.

On the general insurance, industry players said newer avenues have opened up in areas of liability and directors and officers liability space with changes in the companies Act.

Further, both standalone health insurance companies and non-life companies are awaiting details of the Universal Health Care Plan, proposed by the Narendra Modi government.

Unviable pricing and heavy discounts to corporates were a matter of concern, especially in the group health and property space. However, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda) came out with detailed guidelines on pricing of risk and cautioning insurers against offering unviable and cheap rates below the burning cost.

Tapan Singhel, MD & CEO, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance, said they were hopeful and expect a resurrection of the industry given the measures taken by the regulator to correct pricing within the industry. He said this was coupled by the initiatives by the new government at the centre like smart cities, digitalisation, Make in India and financial inclusion among others.

With a better economic condition, insurers said higher rate of double digit growth can return to the industry. Non-life sector, which was growing at almost 18 per cent in FY14, slowed down to around 12 per cent in FY15 (till October 2014).

K K Mishra, MD and CEO, TataAIG General Insurance, said the industry is expected to maintain momentum and achieve better double digit growth, say 15 per cent or more, in FY16 too. This growth, he said will depend on economic and industrial growth within and beyond India.  “Health insurance and focused penetration into existing distribution remain our key growth drivers. We are eyeing healthy growth over our current base. We will keep the momentum on in motor, and will grow the sustainable segments within the overall portfolio,” said Mishra.

On the life insurance side, though the initial months of the year went into refilling of the existing products and completing the product bouquet, competition in online term pricing was also seen.

Tarun Chugh, MD and CEO, PNB MetLife, explained the new portfolio of products would offer lower commissions, higher surrender value, uniform life protection and provide more transparency.

“If the Insurance Amendment Bill comes through, the industry will be reenergised in 2015 with the infusion of capital and we can look forward to a 5-10 per cent growth rate. The investments will be done in product innovations and to increase market penetration which is currently pegged at 4 per cent of GDP (gross domestic product),” he added.

The industry is also looking forward to the digitisation initiatives of the regulator with respect to Common Service Centres (CSCs) and insurance repositories. New models of distributions, including banks as brokers and Insurance Marketing Firms are also being looked forward to.

Distribution models will be relooked, with digitisation and banks-as-brokers guidelines coming in. We will also see more investment in technology to drive customer centricity.

Deepak Mittal, MD and CEO of Edelweiss Tokio Life Insurance, said the investor sentiment will also improve further with the passage of the Bill through the ordinance route. He also added that customer on-boarding and post sales services will also see improvement in the near future.

Estimates suggest a 49 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) cap will bring long-term capital and newer players into the industry from next year.

Chugh said at present the total capital deployed in the life insurance sector is about Rs 35,000 crore. The FDI in this (assuming 26 per cent) is close to Rs 8,700 crore. He said if the cap is raised, the sector stands to gain additional Rs 7,800 crore as FDI.

“The industry at this stage does need long-term capital for growth and expansion, which only FDI can bring in. FDI not only brings in capital and foreign exchange immediately into the economy but enables companies to invest further in managerial ability, technical knowledge, administrative organisation, and innovations in products and processes,” said Chugh.

Vibha Padalkar, ED & CFO, HDFC Life, said the overarching theme of the Bill is to empower the regulator.

Defaults by insurers will also attract heavy penalty. Padalkar said the Bill also proposes to increase the overall quantum of penalty on insurers from the current Rs 5 lakh per incident of violation to Rs1 lakh per day per incident, going up to a maximum of Rs 1 crore per incident, whichever is less in an attempt to increase insurers seriousness to any default.

She added the Amendment Act has also approved Securities Appellate Tribunal as the appellate authority for the insurance sector, which should bring in more transparency and discipline in the sector.

Demand for Ulips is also expected to take a further uptick. Since the stock market has been showing positive signs of growth, there is interest towards buying equity-linked products.

Rishi Piparaiya, director, marketing and direct sales, Aviva Life Insurance, said though it is probably a bit early to say but with the trajectory of the markets and introduction of some extremely competitive plans, we should see an uptick in the demand for Ulips in 2015.

Anuj Agarwal, MD and CEO, Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance, said till November, 55 per cent of our individual business came through Ulips. “Going forward, we expect to have an ideal mix of 50 per cent traditional products and 50 per cent Ulips.”

Alok Bansal, co-founder & CFO, Policybazaar.com, said though they do see double-digit growth for insurance sector in FY16, this will not be across the board.

The passage of the Bill will be the key, he said. “While we welcome the decision of Modi-led government to pass the insurance Bill through Ordinance, we feel that it won’t really boost investments for the existing players. The existing insurers might get into serious discussions with foreign investors, but unless government gives a clear idea on the passage of the Bill, it will continue to hold back both the parties to go ahead with the deal,” he said.

NEW YEAR GREETINGS - 2015

Meeting with GIPSA at New Delhi on 1st Jan, 2015

Dear Friends,

Just now we have received a message  from our General Secretary, NFGIE, Mr Sujit Bagchi that GIPSA has agreed to  Off-Line Examination  procedure for promotion  from Sub-staff/R.C to Assistant as earlier.  Please inform all concerned.

Thanking you and wish you a Happy New Year.

DEBASISH BANERJEE

JT. SECY. NFGIE