LIAFI-SG/CO-085/11 21 July 2012
The Chairman,
L.I.C. of India, Central Office,“Yogakshema”, Jeevan Bima Marg,
P.B. NO-19953,
MUMBAI-400 021
Dear Sir,
Our All India Executive Committee Meeting was held at Cuttack on 24th
& 25th June 2012. Various issues were discussed especially the
house expressed concern at the low bonus rates declared from time to time. The
members are not at all happy at the deteriorating services in Branch and
Divisional Offices. They are worried at the attitude of Management in
addressing our issues. We are listing the following important issues for
immediate attention.
1 Issues of Policyholders:
a) Bonus: The policyholders are unhappy with the
rate of bonus declared from time to time. There is lot of scope to satisfy the
customers by reducing Corporate Expenses.
b) Final Additional Bonus: The policyholders
perturbed at the sudden decrease in final additional bonus. An enquiry is to be
conducted in the entire gamut of bonuses.
c) Service Tax:
The levying of Service Tax for new policies is unpalatable to
policyholders. Management should pay service tax as is done for the existing
policies.
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d) Increase in rate of interest under various
financial transactions for the financial year 2012-13 is another decision taken
against policyholders. This circular is
to be withdrawn forthwith.
Our main interest is only a satisfied Customer but not statistics. Our Executive Committee Meeting has decided to make this point as popular issue. The house opined that the management is more interested in their personnel than the key Policyholders and Agents. We demand good returns to Policyholders
2 Deteriorating Services: The Members expressed their anguish at the deteriorating services at Branch and Divisional Offices. A random check by the higher authorities will confirm our view. The Agents are getting disheartened for continuing as Agent. There is urgent need to develop servicing to every ones satisfaction.
a) Punctuality became casualty despite of introducing the scheme of
providing meal coupons by spending around Rs. 350 Cr. annually.
b) Closed Circuit Cameras to be arranged in Branch Offices.
c) Citizens Charter should be prominently displayed and to be strictly observed.
d) Accountability to be fixed for the dereliction of duties.
e) Acknowledgement to be given for all documents deposited by policyholders
and Agents.
f) Registration of Claims should be done on the same day.
g) Decentralization of NEFT to Branch Offices
Our motto should be “service with a smile” which is eluding policyholders. We demand immediate improvement of Services.
3
Agent Related
Issues: It is the unanimous opinion of the
house that the Agents’ are neglected lot. Even petty issues are not addressed quickly.
Many letters written by LIAFI are unheeded. Similar issues pertinent to LIC
personnel are immediately attended with benevolent views. The same affection is
lacking towards Agents.
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a) Enhancement of Housing Loan.
b) Enhancement of Gratuity.
c) Enhancement of Group Insurance coverage up to the age of 75 years.
d) Amendments to Club Rules.
i.
Escalation Clause
to be removed.
ii. Entry conditions to be lowered.
iii. Discrepancy in calculation of Office Allowance to be removed.
iv. Out of Pocket Expenditure to be increased.
v. Daily Allowance of Club member to enhance.
vi. Club Membership to awarded
without interviews.
vii. The recent enhancement in Mediclaim and Group Insurance coverage for
club members is meager and it should be further enhanced
e) Creating Agents' Welfare Fund
f) Strengthening Empowered Agents.
g) Improvement in CLIA Scheme.
h) Misuse of Section 16 & 19 of Agent Regulations 1972.
i) Contribution for samvardhan
pension scheme.
j) Strengthening of Direct and Career Agents.
Many detailed letters were addressed to you and concerned departments. The house expressed its impatience at delay in
getting redressal. We demand immediate
redressal of our issues.
4 Consultative Committee Meetings: Due importance is not given for information sharing and grievance redressal at Branch, Division and Zonal levels. Even at corporate level the concerned departmental heads are not attending these meetings. Due to this many issues are repetitive for years. It is unfortunate that the healthy and effective practice of presence of all departments’ heads in the Consultative Committee Meeting is diluted completely. Added to this the Agents’ representation is restricted to 5 Members. Despite of several restrictions many Divisions and Zones are not conducting these meetings. Many letters were addressed and a number of discussions took place for restoring to the old practice without any results.
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We demand reverting back to the old practice of inviting one representative
from each zone besides President and Secretary General of our Federation. We
also demand conducting these meetings in all Divisions and Zones with
reasonable participation of Agent representatives. The periodicity shall be at
least once in four months with minutes and Action Taken Report circulated.
To impress upon
the Management about the gravity of the situation it is unanimously decided to
start peaceful agitation from 1st September 2012 culminating in to a
demonstration at Central Office in the month of December 2012.
Thanking you,
Sincerely
yours,
For Life Insurance Agents
Federation of India
Secretary General
