LIC employees to receive wage hike, 5-day working week

The government has reportedly finalised a wage hike for all LIC employees. Not only that, LIC staff will also, now, work five days in a week. This decision comes after a bilateral agreement between bank unions and Indian Banks' Association.

Reports suggest that the hike could be up to 15-16 per cent, while some suggested 20 per cent hike. As many as 1.14 lakh employees of the insurance giant will benefit from the raise. Meanwhile, Shreekant Mishra, General Secretary, All India Insurance Employees Association (AIIEA) told news agency IANS that the hike is expected to be 25 per cent per month. He added that a loading of 15 per cent has been given after 100 per cent neutralisation of dearness allowance (DA) at 6,352 points of consumer price index (CPI).

A Special Allowance ranging between Rs 1,500 to Rs 13,500 per month has been introduced to all cadres too, which will be used to calculate dearness allowance (DA) but not include any other purpose such as house rent allowance, city compensatory allowance, privilege leave encashment, gratuity, superannuation benefit and others, as mentioned by the agency.

The overall increase in the total wage bill for LIC is likely to be around Rs 2,700 crore per year.

The AIIEA had proposed a 40 per cent wage hike. As negotiations went on, the hike was decided at 25 per cent in the last agreement.

While wage revisions are done by the unions, the final wage structure is announced by the government through a gazette notification. This wage revision comes ahead of the planned IPO of the insurance giant.

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