Money
Demanding more benefits, IB employees halt work
Agitating employees of the Insurance Board (IB) have halted regular work since Thursday, demanding several facilities, including salary hike and performance-based incentives.According to IB officials, the protesting staffers have halted almost all work, but letter filing and other minor jobs for the last two days.
The employees’ union said they were forced to take “harsh measures” after the top management ignored their demands although they were protesting since June 23.
Sambhu Prasad Mishra, president of the union, said although the management agreed on April 23 to address their demands, it failed to fulfill its promise. “We have been asking the management just to implement the provisions of the Employee Bylaws that talk about increasing salaries based on the consumers price index published by the central bank,” said Mishra.
However, the IB management said the board does not have right to decide on financial benefits to the staff. IB Director Shreeman Karki said had they forwarded a proposal on the matter to the Finance Ministry. “But the ministry turned down our proposal,” Karki said, adding there had also been talks between representatives from the ministry, IB and the union.
Karki expressed displeasure about the unions’ demand for incentives for meeting annual targets. “Working to meet the annual target is a normal job,’ he said. Among other demands of the union is investigation into IB’s investment in sectors that have yielded lower returns, amendment to the current Insurance Act and Regulati-on, implementation of the charter that could offer services at the shortest possible time, and declaration of 2015 as Insurance Year.