DISCUSSIONS WITH EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR (PERSONNEL)

A delegation of NOINO met the Executive Director (Personnel) Smt. D. Vijayalakshmi on 18th February 2010 in Mumbai. The delegation consisted of Shri Ganesh Kamath, GS; Shri Sudhakar Ingole, WP; Shri C T Joshi, VP ; Shri S K Saini, President, NOINO, NZ; Shri Pulak Dey, Secretary, NOINO, EZ; Shri Anand Jharia, Secretary, NOINO, CZ & Shri Vishwas Shastri, Secretary, WZ. The following issues were discussed:-

Charter: - We enquired about the position of the charter. We demanded that the charter should be settled without any delay. We said that we had already rejected the 17.5% offer & reiterated our demand of a wage hike based on LIC’s performance instead of comparing with the banking industry. The ED (P) replied that the management was continuously in contact with the finance ministry officials & there were efforts on the part of the management to drive home the point that the LIC employees should be paid on the strength of their performance. However, till now, the government has not showed any positive indication on this matter. The management has also conveyed the sentiments of the employees on this issue to the government & was pursuing the matter.
Transfers: - a. We demanded that request transfers should be considered before three years. We further demanded that the request transfers should be considered on next promotion round or even earlier. The ED (P) replied that presently the practice was to consider cases on health grounds & the merits of the individual cases. However, we insisted that the management come out with a uniform, transparent & codified transfer & posting policy. b. We said that there was an urgent need for defining hard stations or hard postings. E.g. complete change of language, departments like Audit, Inspection & places where basic amenities were not available. We also pointed out the problems in relieving the officer who has been posted on promotion to a place where many employees are not willing to go. In such places, till such time a substitute is available, the officer is not relieved though his transfer order has been issued. Even where a substitute has joined, the concerned officer is not relieved till he trains the substitute. The ED (P) promised to look into the matter. c. We also pointed out that the same set of guidelines applied to all. E.g. it is unfair to apply the same criteria for transfer of a person 100 kms away from his home as well as a person 1000 kms(or more) away from his home. d. We pointed out that transfers should also be considered during operation of contingency as well as considering the representation cases (supplementary list). The ED (P) replied that this depended on the policy of the respective Zones & the CO was not very keen to interfere in the same. e. We pointed out that there were problems particularly in the EZ due to the bifurcation of EZ into EZ & ECZ. The marketing officials, who originally belonged to Orissa or Bihar, were not getting transfers even after completion of 3 years or more. The ED (P) replied that she was aware of the problem & would discuss the matter with the respective ZM’s to find out a solution.
Delay in issuing Housing loan instructions: - We strongly protested the inordinate delay in issue of the instructions after the clearance of the Board on 17th November & demanded that the circular of instructions should be issued immediately. We had also submitted a comprehensive letter on the suggestions on modifications The divisions have stopped granting loans & the employees are in the dark about several aspects as to what would be the date of effect, whether a loan from outside institution would be transferred or not etc. The ED (P) informed that the matter was almost finalized & it was now with the LHPF dept & the management was trying for a better deal for the employees from LICHFL. She hoped that the matter would be resolved shortly.
Perquisites tax in respect of staff quarters, newspapers, car under scheme VI (revised):- We insisted that the matter of perquisite tax for newspapers, & car should be taken up with the CBDT; failing which we should seek legal remedy. As the matter of perquisite tax on staff quarters was subjudice, we insisted that in case in all the three matters all options were exercised & result was not in our favour, the Corporation should bear the perquisites tax. We also raised this matter with the ED (Mktg), Shri T. Chattopadhyay who assured us to find a way out in the matter of perquisite tax on car under scheme VI (revised).
Cashless mediclaim :- We enquired about the position on this issue. The ED (P) replied that the situation has changed considerably in recent times with many hospitals refusing to entertain cashless claims through TPA. Moreover, the experience of TPA till now was not good. Hence, there was a need to review the matter. She said that a decision would be taken soon in this matter.
Implementation of E-FEAP: - We pointed out that the implementation of E-FEAP had run into serious trouble. We had information that in spite of the failure to implement it in one branch of Mumbai DO-3, the management went ahead & implemented it in two more branches of Mumbai DO-3. The experiment failed there too. The serious consequences of these failures is that except Cash & NB modules (not working properly), no other module is working & the branches have virtually come to a standstill. The employees are working till midnight but no solution is forthcoming. The policy holders have been put to a lot of distress. To top it all, the management has decided to go ahead & implement in 8 more branches, turning a deaf ear to all protests of the employees. We demanded that further implementation should be stopped forthwith & undertaken only after the year-ending closing that too after the successful implementation in the above-mentioned three branches. Whatever may be the compulsion, it should not be at the cost of the policyholders & the employees. The ED (P) promised to look into the matter. We followed up this matter with ED (CRM) Shri D. Tarafdar & ED (Mktg) Shri T Chattopadhyay. Both of them assured to look into the matter after hearing us patiently. We will also follow-up this matter with the ED (IT) who was not available at that juncture.

Ganesh Kamath
GS, NOINO