LIC employees' federation to continue protesting against privatisation move

Federation of LIC Class-I Officers’ Associations zonal secretary K. Jones said the proposed sale of the Centre's stake in LIC was intended at privatising the public sector behemoth — the world's number one life insurer with 40 crore policyholders and assets worth about ₹30 lakh crore.

Privatisation of LIC is against national interest, he insisted, even as the Centre engaged Deloitte and SBI Caps as pre-transaction advisors to assist in the IPO process. Addressing media persons here on December 19, Mr. Jones said the government invited bids from actuarial firms to decide the embedded value of assets of LIC.

He condemned the government's arbitrary move to divest its stake in the LIC, pointing out that it has come to the rescue of the economy many a times.

The LIC employees would continue protesting against the government's disinvestment proposals, Mr. Jones said, adding that the Centre contemplated pulling out of not only LIC but also railways, defence, steel, petroleum and power sector enterprises.

Federation divisional president P.V. Srinivasa Rao and secretary V. Srinivas said wage revision in LIC was due since August 1, 2017 but no concrete proposal was received yet from the management.

They demanded that the wage revision be done on the basis of the performance of the corporation, its paying capacity and parity with comparable organisations. Besides, steps should be taken for improving pension scheme, enhancing family pension to 30% and scrapping Defined Pension Scheme, they said.

Source: The Hindu