Information Sharing Session held with serving employees’ Unions/Associations/Federations on 29/4/2024 – one-time ex-gratia payment to pensioners

Letter addressed by Joint Front to LIC Chairperson today.

C H Mahadevan 

LIC PENSIONERS' ASSOCIATIONS

All India Retd. Insurance Employees' Federation

Retired LIC Class I Officers' Association (Hyderabad)

LIC Class I Retd. Officers' Association (Panchkula)

To

The Chairperson LIC of India, Central Office, YOGAKSHEMA Mumbai

Dear Sir

DT:30.04.2024

Re: Information Sharing Session held with serving employees' Unions/Associations/Federations on 29/4/2024 – one-time ex-gratia payment to pensioners

We gather that an Information Sharing Session was held on 29-4-2024 with various Associations/Federations/Unions of serving employees of the Corporation for sharing the details of wage revision to be notified by the Central Government giving effect to the same from 1-8-2022.

We also gathered that the participating employees' representatives were informed that an ex-gratia single lump sum would be paid to pensioners/family pensioners/family members aged 70 years and above, further informing that the details were still being worked out and approval will come separately.

It was a matter of shock and disappointment for us that when an important decision about providing a benefit to pensioners as direct stakeholders has been taken, the representatives of the various pensioners' organizations should have been invited for the information sharing session for taking our views also into consideration. We are a Joint Front of two Associations and one Federation of LIC Pensioners having a sizeable number of pensioners as members in all our Associations put together. We lodge our strong protest on this unilateral act of the Corporation omitting to invite us for the Information Sharing session.

We also find that the decision of the Corporation/Central Government is discriminatory by excluding pensioners aged less than 70 years. It was mentioned in the LIC's Press Release dated 15-3-2024, "The revision includes a one-time ex-gratia payment to LIC pensioners as a gesture of appreciation of their valuable contribution to the organization. This will benefit more than 30,000 pensioners and family pensioners."

Exclusion of the pensioners aged less than 70 years of age would thus mean that the Corporation did not find it appropriate to appreciate the valuable contribution to the organization made by the retired employees aged less than 70 years. There has been no age­wise segmentation for any aspect of wage revision effective from 1-8-2022 for serving employees. Then why discrimination for pensioners?

Contd..2

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Even though the payment intended to be made to pensioners is ex gratia, it will be appreciated that protection of fundamental rights under the Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution needs to be ensured.

The decision taken by the Central Government and the Corporation does not satisfy the twin conditions of intelligible criteria and nexus of the benefits to the object of providing the same, required for testing conformity of a decision relating to benefits to be provided for employees with protection of Fundamental Rights under the Constitution. The employees in the age group of 61 to 69 years have also toiled in the Corporation in their heydays of service before retirement. Excluding them from the aforesaid benefit will severely damage their self­esteem and sense of dignity as responsible retired employees of the Corporation and also as senior citizens.

We therefore appeal to your good self to review the matter and ensure that the ex gratia payment is extended uniformly to all employees retired before 1/8/2022 and also all family pensioners in the respective groups of retirements irrespective of ages completed.

We would urge upon you to immediately convene an Information Sharing with pensioner bodies' representatives including of our Joint Front members to discuss this crucial issue.

Thanking you,

Yours faithfully

Ranjan Dey Sarkar All India Retd Insurance Employees` Federation ranjandsarkar@gmail.com

M V Ramana Retd LIC CL I Officers` Association Hyderabad m.ramana1956@gmail.com

B R Mehta LIC Cl I Retd Officers` Association Panchkula brmehta1952@gmail.com