Employees of public sector insurance companies, including LIC and four public sector general insurers, are set to up the ante against the government move to divest LIC and privatise a general insurance company.

Following a two-day bank strike on Monday and Tuesday, general insurance employees are set to go on a strike on Wednesday (March 17, 2021) and LIC employees have called a strike on Thursday (March 18, 2021).

Over 7,000 officers and employees from these government-owned insurance companies in Bengal are set to participate in the nationwide strike on these two days.

Among the services that are likely to be affected include premium collection and payments at the offices of these insurance companies, claim settlement and underwriting of policies in both life insurance and general insurance, including health insurance. However, online payment facilities that have gained traction in the pandemic will remain functional, insurance industry officials said.

In the Union budget, the government had announced its decision of strategic sale in one general insurance company in 2021-22 and introduce the initial public offer of LIC in the current fiscal. The government had also proposed in the budget to amend the Insurance Act, 1938 to increase the permissible FDI limit from 49 per cent to 74 per cent in insurance companies.

Members of All India Insurance Employees’ Association (AIIEA) on Monday said that the reason for the strike call is three fold — the proposed LIC IPO, the decision to increase the FDI limit and a move to privatise a public sector general insurance company.

Bank strike

Rajen Nagar, president of All India Bank Employees Association, on Monday said that banking services were adversely affected not only in Bengal but in other parts of the country as well. Banking services, including branch banking, treasury operations, cheque clearances were among the services that were affected.

According to the association, the social objective of providing insurance cover to the weaker sections will suffer a setback as the insurers target bigger policies to generate greater profit. The expansion into unprofitable rural areas will also take a backseat according to the association.

AIIEA also questioned the flip-flop of government from its earlier decision (announced in union budget 2018) to consolidate three public sector general insurance companies – National Insurance, United India Assurance and Oriental India Insurance - into a single entity and list the same on the bourses to a straight strategic sale of one of the state owned general insurance company in Budget 2021. The union cabinet last July had approved a capital infusion of Rs 12,450 crore into these three insurance companies and dropped the plan to merge them.