THE NATIONAL CONFEDERATION OF GENERAL INSURANCE OFFICERS ASSOCIATIONS

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1 President Jose Verghese Cell : joseverghese@uiic.co.in joje29@yahoo.com Working President Manoj Muir Cell : manoj.muir@newindia.co.in Secretary General Vivek Saxena Cell : Confed@oicoa.net viveksaxena@orientalinsurance.co.i n Addl. Secy. General Ashok Goel Cell: ashok.goel@nic.co.in Asst. Secy. General S.S. Yadav ssyadav@orientalinsurance.co.in Rajib Banerjee Rajib.Banerjee@nic.co.in S. Chndrashekhran schandrasekharan@uiic.co.in Vijay Sharma vijayniaoa@rediffmail.com Treasurer S.K.Ahuja Cell : skahuja@orientalinsuranc.co..in CONFED/2013/SG/ th September' 2013 Shri Anup Wadhawan, Joint Secretary(BA and P&I), Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance, Parliament Street, New Delhi Respected Sir, RE.: Memorandum We would like to convey our sincere thanks for providing a hearing on the issues pertaining to the four PSGI Companies and the Officers working in these Companies. We being the largest stakeholders in Non-Life PSG Insurance Industry in India have following concerns to share with you with the hope that as owner of these Companies, Ministry will direct Management to act on issues mentioned below: 1. ROLE GIPSA GIPSA was created merely as a coordinating body at the time of de-linking of the four PSGI Companies from GIC in GIPSA has no legal sanctity. Initially for four years it was looked after by one of the GMs on part time basis. Then GIPSA was shifted to New Delhi in 2004 and was headed by a working General Manager as full time Chief Executive till 2009 and then position of CEO was demoted to DGM level. Then in 2012 it was again elevated to GM level with the posting of a full time GM. On his transfer to NIA the CEO position was given to an Ex CMD as a stop gap arrangement, as informed by him on 11 th May'2012 at Chennai Meeting with the Associations. We have already demanded that a full time General Manager from the industry be posted as CEO, GIPSA. Another Ex.CMD was appointed as Incharge to set up Inhouse TPA blocking one more vacancy for in service General Manager. The induction of retired executives as Advisers is not in the interest of industry and there is no value addition to industry other than the personal benefit to them. The interest of the Industry can best be served by the existing executives only. Direct appointment of certain persons in CITPA without any selection process is against the laid down procedure for appointment of a Consultant in the Industry even in contravention to CVC guidelines.

2 2. LACK TRANSPARENCY AT GIPSA - GIC used to have regular discussions with Officers Associations in all areas affecting Officers of Company. Since the formation of GIPSA there has not been any transparency and bilateral discussions are minimal. Most of the decisions taken are unilateral even without proper consultation with Company managements and only information given to Associations. Even the Minutes of the Meetings held at various levels at GIPSA are not shared. This has seriously affected the goodwill which has existed between the Officers Associations and the Management during GIC days. We were assured by GIPSA during the last wage negotiation, that we will be called for discussion on amendments to Transfer & Mobility Policy, Promotion Policy, Check Off amendments etc which are yet to take place. 3. NEED TO HAVE A COMPREHENSIVE HUMAN RESOURCE POLICY - Our Industry is working on the age old Personnel Policies and GIPSA/ Companies have been tinkering with the policies and making the atmosphere worse every time. We demand that a comprehensive HR Policy for the Industry in consultation with the Associations/Unions be formulated. 4. RECOGNITION TO ASSOCIATIONS The Check off process was introduced in 2004 at the instance of Court to determine who are the major Associations out of the 46 Associations before check off. The main aim of Check off was to recognize the main players. In March'2003 GIPSA Governing Council directed the Companies to Recognize the Associations after the first check off but it is yet to be done. Now even the basic characteristic of check off of determining the Membership by way of deduction of subscription from the salary is done away by the Management. You are requested to kindly instruct GIPSA to withdraw the check off amendments 2009 immediately as it comes in the way of bilateral talks with the check off qualified associations. Simultaneously, the Companies may be instructed to initiate the proceedings for recognition of Association at par with the Banking Section. 5. REVISION IN MEDICLAIM Revision in Mediclaim was our demand for last few years as the Sum Insured has not been revised. The revision in Mediclaim was done by GIPSA unilaterally without discussing the same with the Associations and even GM(P)s and the revised scheme apart from few good features such as Floater, Cashless, increase in sharing had lot of issues to be discussed with the Association. On meeting the four chairman at Joint forum of all the Associations/Unions the Associations/ Unions were called to discuss the issue on 19 th / 20 th August'2013 for Two hours only. As we understand some modifications in the scheme have been approved by GIPSA governing board without communicating to us the developments. The minutes of the meeting held on 19 th / 20 th August '2013 have also not been provided to us and even to GM(P)s. We still have the following contemplations (a) The Scheme should be devised keeping the HR concept in mind & not the business motive whereas the Medical facility in most of the PSU & Govt. Departments is provided free of cost and policy to other corporates are provided at much lesser rates by our companies. It will be shocking to note that all Companies have offered better rates to employees of Royal Sundaram Alliance Insurance company than their own employees.(b) The cashless facility is demanded by us but not through TPA, the PSGI Companies have a tie up & panel rates with PPN hospitals and the cashless facility may be provided directly. The same arrangement may be extended to non-ppn hospitals at the same terms & conditions (c)the cost of OPD consultation, diagnostics, procedures & medicines should be part of the cashless tie up & to be part of the scheme as it will save unnecessary cost on room rents & nursing etc. you are requested to intervene & instruct GIPSA to devise the scheme accordingly. With the proposed guidelines by IRDA to have tie up with Network hospitals on rates, there may not be any need for TPA. Historically it is well known that TPAs have only increased the Claim ratio with added Management cost.

3 6. NEW PENSION SCHEME We thank the Ministry for intervening in this issue after our previous meeting. Notification & administrative guidelines for NPS (New Pension Scheme) made effective wef 1 st April'2010 in sync with LIC and Banking Sector from is awaited. We request yourself to get the notification expedited and instruct GIPSA to issue the administrative guidelines for the implementation of the same. 7. ANOTHER OPTION FOR PENSION - We reiterate our demand for another option to the employees to join the 1995 Pension Scheme. Employees in the roll, as on date of notification of NPS, in the four Companies be given another option for joining Pension Scheme It was one of our main demands during the last Wage Revision, During the Wage Revision discussion GIPSA has assured to take up the issue with Ministry after getting the details of the cost towards Pension through an Actuary. At present the coverage of employees under Pension is more than 90% in the Banking and LIC where as it is only 70% in Public Sector General Insurance Industry. We would request you to kindly provide another option for pension at the earliest. With PFRDA, the Government has been moving towards its Socialist Goal of providing Pension Facility to the unorganized sector. In the same manner, Employees in the General Insurance sector who are not covered by Pension should be included. 8. COMMENCEMENT WAGE REVISION TALKS IN GIPSA COMPANIES The wage revision in the four PSGI Companies has become due on 1 st August'2012 The process of wage negotiations has already been initiated in Banking industry. We request you to kindly instruct GIPSA to initiate the process and conclude at the earliest. 9. NON CORE BENEFITS Non-Core Issues were promised to be cleared within six months of Wage revision. Many of these are yet to be taken up for e.g. Air travel & Petrol expenses to all officers, Revision in Lease limits at par with SBI, meal coupons, reimbursement of cost of mobiles for officers as prevalent in LIC etc. as given in Charter of Demands submitted to GIPSA and GIPSA may be instructed to revise the same at the earliest. 10. AMENDMENT TO PLIS the PLIS scheme provides incentive to only 25% of the work force. The performance of the Company is a sum total of all the employees in the Company hence every body should be rewarded. We wish to have it for the entire work force, hence the scheme may be amended accordingly. Group based PLIS has been highly defective leading to demoralization to 75% of the workforce. We suggest 50% of the corpus be distributed to all employees and the balance 50% be distributed on performance basis. For the year the entire industry was hit by additional provisioning norm insisted by IRDA. This resulted in almost all the Companies in the Industry running of huge losses. Further as far as Government Insurance are concerned huge provision was made for Wage Revision arrears which pertain to the previous few years. Thus Companies could not meet the norm of minimum 200 crores profit set under the Scheme. This is unfair as there was no drop in productivity and all the employees had contributed their best. Even IRDA had lowered the required Solvency ratio from 1.5 to 1.3 for this year. It may be noted that the Companies had paid Dividend this year to the Government based on this revised Solvency Ratio. We urge upon you to have a relook and release PLIS for COMPASSIONATE GROUND APPOINTMENT We demand immediate restoration of Compassionate ground appointment in our Industry. The same is there in GOI and we understand is being restored in banking sector also. 12. TIME BOUND DISPOSAL CDA & VIGILANCE CASES The CDA & vigilance cases should be disposed off in a

4 time bound manner in accordance with the GOI guidelines and various court decisions in this regard so that officers do not suffer due to delay in justice. Officers are being made to suffer due to dilly-dalying in the matters by the department at the Companies. You are requested to kindly issue instructions to the Companies to expedite the cases & decide in a time bound manner and in any case before the superannuation of the officer concerned. 13. AMENDMENTS IN PROMOTION POLICY - GIPSA introduced a New Promotion Policy in Ever since the introduction of this Policy we have been asking for changes in the same as the Policy neither caters to the needs of the Company nor meets the aspiration of the Officers. For the last seven years Promotions have been held based on the 2006 Policy. We have given our views on the proposals made and also reiterated our demand for Changes in the Promotion system, i.e. Changes in the Examination pattern, Introduction of Review and in-situ provisions, limiting examination to Fast track channel only etc. In fact there has been a huge loss to the companies due to introduction of the examination system on loss of work, cost on training, Tours, conduction of the examination. SBI has introduced the examination more than a decade but has withdrawn realising the loss to the organisation. Now the examination system has been made as On-line but the results are scanned, analysed by GIPSA & member companies and declared after days whereas the same can be declared on the spot and communicated to the officer concerned through . There has been a continuous change in the examination pattern, evaluation methodology making it difficult for the aspirants. There have been court cases, CIC decisions to maintain transparency but GIPSA & member companies have been doing the things in an totally closed & secret manner raising doubts about their intentions. Two years back a committee for investigation into the matter was formed on the directions of DFS and as we understand a number manipulations were being made in the Promotion exercise but still transparency is not being maintained in the system. We demand that the report of the committee constituted by DFS be shared with us and justice be done with all the officers who had suffered because of the draconian attitude of GIPSA & the member companies. 14. AMENDMENTS IN TRANSFER & MOBILITY POLICY FOR FICERS - The Policy was devised & implemented in 2002 and has been implemented for 11 years. There have been pick & choose in implementation of TMP & even CAG has pointed out some flaws in the implementation of the Policy. We have requested amendments in the policy looking at the cost benefit analysis of the same and the hardships to the officers. We demand the amendments to be discussed with the Associations at the earliest. 15. UNDERWRITING & MARKETING ISSUES - We are seriously concerned about the Underwriting losses in the Companies and the lack of coordination among the GIPSA Companies. Underpricing and lack of coordinated approach is seriously affecting the bottom-line of the Companies. There is urgent need for Marketing Coordination among the four PSGI Companies. This is something which we have been asking for since 2007, when detariffing was introduced. Consequent upon our Meeting with Joint Secretary, DFS on 17 th October'2011 some discipline was enforced by the Ministry but now again the Companies have resorted to the fight among themselves leading to loss of exchequer to the public money. As per rough estimates the four PSGI companies are losing around Rs Crore every year due to discounting which can be saved if the four companies have some understanding among themselves & stop fighting which is benefiting the private companies. We demand proper underwriting discipline among the four Companies as the discounts given are to corporates & not to individuals. We will submit detailed paper on this.

5 16. IN-HOUSE TPA - Our demand for in-house TPA for the Four companies has been kept in abeyance for a long time leading to heavy losses in Health portfolio. The claim ratio has risen from 60%-70% to % in health segment after the introduction of TPA. The majority of the grievances are due to extremely bad service provided by TPAs. We demand that Mediclaim should also be handled in-house by the Centralised Service centers who are dealing with other claims also. A separate cell within service center may be created and companies should enter into agreement with the hospitals to provide cashless service to the clients. The idea of Common TPA for PSGI Companies has not been able to see the light of the day for more than Four years now. We feel that the delay is due to the pressure from the TPA lobby. The concept of Common TPA compared to individual inhouse TPA is not a good proposition as a similar experiment in the field of Motor Third Party Claims Office (MTPCO) miserably failed. 17. ROAD MAP FOR THE INDUSTRY We urge that there should be a Road map for the Industry as we need to plan for tomorrow instead of working on adhoc basis. Corporate management of the four Companies has to be accountable for the future state of affairs in the Industry. There should be a Road map for 2015,2020, 2025 & so on for the industry. The vision 2000, 2010 prepared by the industry earlier should also be reviewed for its achievements and the executives responsible for the same should be held accountable. 18. OPENING MICRO FICES -Concept of a Micro Office had come about during discussions where it was our suggestion to improve the Office net work, many years back. This was taken and has worked well. While we welcome the idea of opening more such offices, there are many issues involved which would result in a good concept getting jeopardized. Hence, we are submitting a separate paper on this issue. 19. ORGANISATION RESTRUCTURING: - As suggested vide letter No. CONFED/2013/SG/111 DGM ( Scale VI ) should head the Regional Offices reporting to a GM ( Scale VII) posted as Zonal Head. 20. RENOVATION AND FICE UPKEEP PSGI Companies mostly have offices in the back side or on upper stories and in shabby conditions. There is a need to have offices on ground floor preferably purchased ones and be renovated uniformly with standardization to have a good ambience. A directive to this regard was sent by JS in 2011 and the Companies have not acted on the directives of Ministry wholeheartedly. 21. FAILURE REGULATOR IN CONTAINING PRIVATE SECTOR MALPRACTIES: The recent newspaper report of a Private Insurance Company ( ICICI ) in centrally sponsored Scheme has brought forth the failure of Regulatory Authority in containing malpractices of Private Companies. More glaring has been an institution resorting to malpractice rather than an individual. We, therefore, demand that all necessary punitive actions may be taken against these Private Companies. We also demand that all Central / State sponsored schemes ma be implemented through PSU GI Companies only. Such step is already taken by Tamilnadu State Govt. by canceling contract with Private Company and awarding to PSU Companies. We would request your good self to intervene in the above mentioned Issues in respect of the four PSU Companies. Thanking You, Sincerely yours, (Vivek Saxena) Secretary General

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