Work 15 minutes extra, and take home Rs 2000 more!

State-run general insurers' staff clinch a bumper wage deal.

Employees of the four state-owned general insurance companies could not have asked for a better New Year gift "" a 15-minute increase in working hours but with a Rs 2,000 hike in pay.

As per the wage revision agreement between the management body of General Insurers Public Sector Association and the various trade unions, working hours at United India, Oriental insurance, New India Assurance and National Insurance have been increased by 15 minutes daily, while the average monthly salary has been hiked by Rs 2,000.

The central government had issued a gazette notification in this regard recently.

As per the notification the working hours would be 10 am to 5.45 pm from Monday to Thursday instead of 10  am to 5.30 pm and on Fridays from 10 am to 6 pm instead of 10 am to 5.45 pm.

The present system of a five-day week will, however, continue. Casual leave, however, has been curtailed to 12 days from 14 days in a year, while the practice of half-day casual leave has been dropped. Additional casual leave facility has also been abolished but there will be the benefit of two restricted holidays for employees.

The notification also allowed a wage revision for the 60,000-plus employees with an average salary increase of Rs 2,000, with retrospective effect from August 2002. The arrears will be disbursed on 9 January, 2006.

The agreement, which also allows the management to transfer the clerical staff within a radius of 150 kms, was arrived after discussions were held in Hyderabad in July 2005, but implementation was delayed mainly owing to disputes on the issue of transfer and mobility policy for class-3 [clerical staff] employees.

Sources said that there would be a second round of voluntary retirement scheme in general insurance companies.