A letter to C-in-C on the state of affairs in LIC

NOINO has written a letter to the Current-in-Charge of our Corporation today i.e. 20th September 2011 drawing his attention on several pending issues of the employees. The letter is reproduced below:

20.9.2011

The Current-in-Charge,

L.I.C. of India.

Dear Sir,

Re: Current state of affairs in our Corporation

            We feel constrained to write this letter to you. The letter may be long, but we request you to go personally through it. The subject matter of this letter is obvious from the above title.

            We all love this great institution of ours & this love & loyalty has compelled us to write this letter. For the last one year or so, there has been a feeling among the employees that the Corporation is not on the right track & the decision-making & implementation process has been painfully slow. Some of the decisions have proved to be horribly wrong & the employees have to bear the brunt of it for no fault of theirs. We also feel that the management could be more transparent. Consider the following:-

1. There has been no Information Sharing Meeting with the unions since 19^th July 2010. Even that meeting was related to the conclusion of wage-revision.
2. The decision to transfer the Housing loan portfolio to HFL has proved to be a disaster. Every time we have a discussion with the management on this issue, some new date/month is dished out saying things would fall in place by that date/month. But the fact of the matter is that even after more than one year, major problems remain to be solved. E.g. employees still have not received the re-imbursement of the subsidy & they have to pay the renewed instalment through their noses. The employees are at a loss to know whom & where to approach. The only solution is to bring back this portfolio to LIC but for some strange reasons we are dragging our feet.
3. The EFEAP implementation has placed the employees in a tight corner. Even in places where the EFEAP was implemented long ago, things have not stabilised. We are not even paying a farthing to the employees who have to implement this at un-earthly hours. The policyholders & agents are not happy in these branches & consequently our image is taking a beating.
4. The issue of one more pension option has also not been solved. We even don’t know what the progress in this matter is.
5. No information is forthcoming as to PLLI. The Board meeting scheduled on 16^th of September has been postponed. Consequently, rumour-mongers are having a field day. The air needs to be cleared forthwith in this matter. The ‘Statement of intent’ should be made public. The employees are eagerly waiting for the PLLI.
6. The AAO notification is pending for several days. This is normally issued in the month of June. It is September now & there are no signs of the same being issued. Employees are eagerly waiting for the same to be expedited.
7. It is a known fact that the recruitment of Class IV is in jeopardy. Though court cases are said to be the impediment, if the management had taken the unions into confidence long back on this issue that could have helped solving this matter much earlier. Even the court cases (some of those) are a result of the faulty interpretation & implementation of the court orders.
8. There is a desperate need for a massive Class III recruitment to ease the workload. However, for years together, recruitment was not done & when it was done the numbers were very few, depending upon some mysterious staff strength formula which baffles the employees.
9. We are eager to outsource many of our portfolios. But the experience till now has proved that these decisions have not proved to be prudent. We (sort of) outsourced the Housing loan portfolio & failed miserably. We outsourced the recruitment process & many irregularities surfaced. Even during this years’ Direct recruit AAO’s recruitment, everyone knows what happened. The results are yet to see the light of the day (yet another example of our slow movement).
10. Even after glaring mistakes & anomalies are pointed out, the same are not rectified in spite of logical arguments. One classic example is that of the employees promoted under 1B & fitted to minimum of basic of AAO’s. The effect of computer increment has got nullified & employees junior to them are drawing one more increment. But in spite of our pointing out this crystal-clear anomaly as also the fact that SBI has rectified this mistake long back in 1996 in an exactly similar situation, the issue is hanging for last 15 years or so. What is the reason for this unprecedented delay?
11. There is no transfer-promotion-posting policy for the Class I officers worth its salt. Genuine cases are being overlooked.
12.   We had demanded last year that the meal coupons should be linked to DA rise & revised periodically. Though the management had not agreed in to-to at that time, there were enough positive indications in this respect. Now we are being told that no proposal of such sort is being considered.
13.  The Corporation is not doing well this year. However, the whole Insurance Industry & the Indian economy is also not doing well. A section of the management is breathing down the necks of the branch officials as if they are responsible for the entire Corporation not doing well.  The overall strategy is not devised by these branch officials. The ‘carrot & stick’ method of motivating has become old hat. But now-a-days the carrot is missing & only the stick is visible.

       The above letter should not be construed as criticism. If at all, it can be termed as a positive one. This is more an attempt of self-evaluation & self-introspection. It is common experience now-a-days to hear evasive answers from the management which betrays a lack of transparency. Though a lot of lip-service is paid to unions’ contribution to the Corporation’s progress, the actual responses of a section of management speak otherwise.

       Time has come to think dis-passionately & work passionately. The employees are already working passionately & with zeal. The management should now think dis-passionately about the shortcomings & consult the unions about solving them. Healthy dissent should be encouraged instead of stifling it. Participative management is the need of the hour.

      Anticipating a frank discussion on these issues,

Yours faithfully,

Sd/-

Ganesh Kamath                   

GS, NOINO