Report by KEC correspondent
Nearly 58,000 employees in the public sector general insurance companies are observing 2-day strike on July 27-28, 2022 for their long pending wage revision and other demands.
The last wage revision valid for five years was done in August 2012, and the next wage revision of five years duration is still pending since August 2017 with the validity period ending this month-end.
Workers of general insurance companies had gone on a day’s token strike on July 15 to highlight their demand, particularly since the wage agreement of the Life Insurance Corporation Ltd. employees was settled earlier this year.
The unions had sent a detailed letter to the Centre and the managements of these insurance companies on June 23, 2022 urging them to resolve and settle the pending Wage Revision at par with LIC, as has been the historical practice, but there was no response.
Later, the government told the employees’ union to defer their proposed strike by a month (to July 15), but no progress has been made.
The government has been deliberately delaying the wage revision. “The aim of the government is clearly to privatise these companies, compel the employees to take VRS and quit,” the union leaders allege.