Dear Shri Gangadharanji,
NOIP delegation would meet LIC's top brass during the course
of ensuing wage revision talks to press for the demands.
With regards,
Ashok J Joshi
General Secretary, NOIP (BMS)
Date: 13-10-2015
The Chairman,
LIC of India, Yogakshema,
Mumbai
Dear Sir,
Re: Long pending issues relating to pensioners
We are happy to learn that employees' unions have been called for wage revision talks on 16th & 17th of this month. NOIP has submitted the Charter of Demands on 23-07-2012, on the BMS Foundation Day, to the then Chairman. We request you to call NOIP for discussions on the matters raised in the said Charter and also on pending issue/grievances.You may appreciate that by calling Pensioners' Organisations for discussions; you would be listening to the voice of more than 40,000 pensioners/family pensioners of LIC. Such a big chunk of pensioners cannot be left unheard. As a leader of mammoth organization LIC, your baby step in this direction would be worthy of appreciation and other PSUs may follow the suit. We would like to draw your kind attention to the following pressing demands/issues.
1) Amendment to LIC of India (Employees') Pension Rules, 1995
Since the last 4 years we have been insisting that there is a dire need to amend the pension rules and urge upon you to recommend amendments to obviate the glaring anomalies in pension rules-
a) Computation of Basic Pension- VI Pay Commission has recommended computation of pension as average of last 10 months' basic pay or 50% of last drawn basic whichever is beneficial to the retiree. This ensures non anomalous situation if one retires in the intervening period of new wage revision. We request same rule to be applied to LIC pensioners as thousands of pensioners are affected in LIC due to the faulty method of computation of pension, being followed in LIC in such cases.
b) Family Pension- VI Pay Commission has also recommended 30% of last pay drawn as family pension and full pension if one completes 20 years of service. For RBI pensioners, the Govt issued gazette notification dtd 12- 18 Jan, 2013, granting flat 30% of last pay drawn as family pension and full pension if 20 years service is completed. We request the same to be adopted for LIC pensioners.
c) Increased pension to pensioners of age 80 and above- VI Pay Commission has recommended increased pension to very senior citizens of age 80 and above. The same may please be granted to LIC Pensioners too.
d) One more pension option- We have been demanding one more option for pension to those who did not opt earlier. The said facility was given to Bank Pensioners during the 2010 wage revision. But LIC employees /pensioners were deprived of this offer. Hence we request you to grant one more option to opt for pension as there are hardly 15% who have been left out of the pension net. Option may please be given to those who took VRS/resigned to take care of family/had normal retirement.
e) Implementation of the Order dtd.17-12-2012 in DBSA 1492/2002 passed by the HC of Rajasthan at Jaipur - M.C.Jain's case
We learn that LIC's SLP (Civil) No.16713/2014 and Petitions for SLP to Appeal-CC No.8094/2014 arising out of the impugned order captioned above, have been dismissed by the Honorable Supreme Court vide its order dtd 02-07-2014. We request you to immediately arrange to initiate the implementation of the captioned order to similarly placed Cl I officers who retired after 01-08-1992 and up to 31-03-1993.
f) Up gradation of basic pension with every wage revision-
Provision for up grading the basic pension with every wage revision in consonance with the revision to existing employees; be also included in the amendments.
g) Anomaly of Dearness Relief- 50% reduction in rates of DR prior to 01-08-1997 and tapered DR slabs to those retired prior to 01-08-1997 have to be done away with. (Granting 100% DR neutralization).
2) Mediclaim related issues-We are thankful to you for having finalized the floater scheme and MOU signed with New India Assurance Co Ltd. But many aspects contained therein simply remain on paper without seeing the light of implementation. (a) Even after lapse of 2 years hapless pensioners are yet to be issued ID cards either by LIC or by TPAs or by NIA for cashless hospitalization. (Except in SZ) Though substantial efforts are done by P & IR Dept, CO, they have failed to produce the desired results. (b) Though time limit of maximum 30 days is prescribed for reimbursement , even now ground reality remains the same- TPAs are taking more time to settle the claims after all queries are submitted. We request you to remedy the situation by your kind intervention. In some of the Divisions even pensioners' data is not up dated resulting in delay in reimbursements.
3) Cash medical allowance- NOIP has been demanding cash medical allowance in line with in-service employees to mitigate the outpatient medical expenses that run in thousands every month. RBI's recent circular dtd.11-03-2015 in this regard is worth appreciating, as they have granted Rs.3900-6500 to their pensioners as medical allowance per year. Your benevolent gesture to LIC pensioners is requested in granting the allowance immediately.
In addition to the above to discuss the remaining demands in our Charter of Demands, we once again urge you to call NOIP also for discussions.
Awaiting your favourable action in the matter,
Thanking you,
