New AAO recruits, think twice before joining LIC of India!

New AAO recruits, think twice before joining LIC of India

          Recently, LIC of India has advertised for recruitment of AAOs, in the newspapers and other media. Most of you, who think that LIC's is a lucrative job with bright career prospects; and are eligible candidates; will fill in the forms. 
         
          Here's a warning. BEWARE! The reasons for exercising caution are as follows:
If selected, LIC of India will give you appointment letters, stating your expected salary, with a statement in brackets, saying, 'Wage Revision Due'.
But if you leave LIC within 3 years, you won't get the arrears due to wage revision and will be left high and dry. You'll run from pillar to post for your legally rightful dues, but won't get any response from LIC or you'll get the hackneyed response that 'as per rules, you are not eligible for arrears' payment.'
In every Charter of wage revision, LIC includes a Clause 3 1 ii)/b) which states that resigning employees will not get the arrears. This is in spite of the fact that the Supreme Court has declared this Clause to be ultra vires, in 2008.
In effect, if you stick around with LIC for a minimum of 20 years, you'll get the arrears, but if you leave before 20 years, even by one day, you won't get the arrears.
So friends, think carefully whether you'll continue to serve in LIC for so long and only then apply for the job. This is especially for the Direct Recruits as Assistant Administrative Officers in LIC of India.
If you are applying for other jobs in the Government Sector, simultaneously, and get some call letter from them after joining LIC, and decide to take up that offer and resign from LIC, you will not get the arrears payment because of LIC's Clause, as above-mentioned.

Let me give you an instance:
Mr. X joined LIC in 2013 and left in 2015, to join the Income Tax Department as an Income Tax Officer. As per the wage revision Gazette of 2016, he will not get arrears for those two years, in spite of having been on the salary roll of the Corporation!

This injustice has been going on since 1st August, 1997 (23 years and still counting!)

My sincere advice is that think not only twice but 2000 times before joining LIC of India. And if you do join, serve for full 20 years at least!
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Kindly refer to my blog post dated 14.04.2015, as follows:

                 No mention of repudiation in the appointment letters!

         

          In the appointment letters to the employees, nowhere is it mentioned that the employees can't leave service, or that their arrears' payments will be repudiated if they leave service of the Corporation. So how can this clause be introduced, that too with retrospective effect? If at all it has to be introduced, it could be with prospective effect and the same should be mentioned in the appointment letters.
          

         In fact, some employees who joined LIC in the recent years, have been given appointment letters stating that the wage revisions are due, meaning that they will be eligible for the same when they are notified. But when they resigned from LIC, they were denied the arrears' payments! Shouldn't they have been informed about the repudiation's clause, beforehand, so that they could've made an informed decision?
          

         Likewise, even after their resignation letters were received by LIC, they should've been intimated accordingly, with respect to this clause. The fact that LIC regularly accepts resignations without doing so, indicates that LIC is not playing fair. It can easily keep the resignations pending and accept them after the notification is made public, so that they aren't deprived of their hard-earned dues.
         

         The Supreme Court has declared this clause itself to be ultra vires, meaning 'beyond reach' of the Chairman's powers. But obviously, LIC's management thinks that it is beyond any law of the Nation! It is a law unto itself!
           

          Besides, the Finance Ministry too ratifies this unjust clause in the Wage Arrears' Notification, every 5 years, since 2000; without considering the Supreme Court's judgement.
          

          LIC, (and the Finance Ministry), it's time for some serious introspection!

Whose trust does L.I.C of India treasure?

L.I.C of India presented a cheque of Rs. 2610.74 crores to the Government as its share of the surplus arising out of LIC's actuarial valuation as at 31.03.2019.

When will it pay us, the resigning ex-employees, our wage revision arrears, difference in Statutory Retirement Benefits - Provident Fund and Gratuity; with interest?

When will it stop betraying our trust?

L.I.C of India must learn to treasure all its stake-holders' trust. It's high time!

We hope that the New Year will teach L.I.C of India invaluable lessons in honoring trust, learning the meaning of commitment and ethics; and playing fair!

L.I.C - Kindly start computing our dues with the accrued interest thereon. You will have to pay them this year. (The dues have remained unpaid since 1997, more than two decades!)

Happy New Year!

P.S. Hope the Prime Minister and Finance Minister are listening too! Kindly direct the Management of L.I.C of India to do the needful, PRONTO!

Thanks in anticipation.

The long-suffering, resigning, ex-employees of L.I.C of India

Vigilance Week in LIC of India

Source: https://blog.ipleaders.in/can-employee-sue-his her-employer-penal-provisions-faced-employer/

What are the instances under which an employee can sue his/her employer?

By  Ajay Thakur

March 15, 2017

What actions can you take if your employer does not pay salaries or fails to deposit TDS or PF?

For unpaid salary, you can approach the Labour Commissioner, who will further hand over the matter to the court, in case Labour Commissioner is not able to handle the matter. The employee can make an application to the Labour Court under Section 33 (C) of The Industrial Disputes x Act, 1947. (Refer Case law: Sant Raj & Anr vs O.P. Singla & Anr on 9 April, 1985).

The definition of workman under the Industrial Disputes Act includes a part time employee (Case law: Yashwant Singh Yadav vs State Of Rajasthan And Ors. on 12 April, 1989)

Also, such an application should be made within one year from when the money becomes due from the company. All other benefits such as Provident Funds under “Employees’ Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952”, capable of being computed in terms of money, shall also be included in the amount to be recovered. An employer who contravenes, or makes default in complying with the provisions of this Act, shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to 3 years but which shall not be less than 1 year and a fine of ten thousand rupees in case of default in payment of the employees’ wages which shall not be less than 6 months and a fine of five thousand rupees, in any other case.

If you are an employee above the executive level or a manager and above, you can also file a case against the Company in the Civil Court.

In case of fraudulent practices by the company under section 447 of Companies Act, 2013, you can always approach Registrar of Companies and intimate them of the fraudulent activities of the company.

If for a period of one day in a year, 20 or more persons were employed in the establishment that will be sufficient to attract the provisions of the Act (Case Law: Ramanujam Press Represented By … vs The Regional Provident Fund … on 19 June, 1969)

As the power of regional PF commissioner to impose damages is a quasi-judicial function, an order under section 14(B) must be a speaking order containing the reasons in support of it (Case law: Organo Chemical Industries & Anr vs Union Of India & Ors on 23 July, 1979)

What will you do if your employer doesn’t pay you gratuity?

According to section 8 of the “Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972, in case the employer doesn’t pay the gratuity within the prescribed time to his employee (or nominee), the aggrieved employee can apply for redressal to the controlling authority. The controlling authority after investigation will issue a certificate for that amount to the Collector, who shall recover the same, together with compound interest at such rate specified by the Central Government. In case of delayed remittances of contributions, administrative / inspection charges by an employer, he has to pay both interest and damages for the period of delay.

According to section 11 of the “Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972, where the amount of gratuity has not been paid, or recovered within 6 months from the expiry of the prescribed time, the appropriate Government shall authorise the controlling authority to make a complaint against the employer, whereupon the controlling authority shall, within 15 days from the date of such authorisation, make such compliant to a magistrate having jurisdiction to try the offence.

According to section 9 of the “Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972, if the employer fails to pay the gratuity, he shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than 6 months but which may extend to 2 years, unless the court trying the offence for reasons to be recorded by it in writing, is of the opinion that lesser term of imprisonment or imposition of a fine would meet the ends of justice.

Here “Controlling Authority” means an authority appointed by the appropriate Government.

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Dear friends,

In the light of the facts mentioned in the above article, LIC of India should be grateful to us that we haven't yet sued it! Who knows, we could be ultimately pushed to the wall in the near future and file a 'Class Action Suit' or a 'Public Interest Litigation'!

I wonder how the officials in the Managing Board of Directors of LIC of India even get sound sleep at night, after defrauding scores of resigning ex-employees of their hard-earned dues like arrears arising due to wage revision, difference in Statutory Retirement benefits like Provident Fund and Gratuity; despite the Supreme Court's verdict favoring such employees, in several cases? No prick of conscience?

Ironically, they will even take an oath of acting ethically, in their dealings as office-bearers of the Corporation, during the currently ongoing Vigilance Week! And keep including the illegal Clause in the Wage Revision Charter, every time that it is published; stipulating that such arrears are to be repudiated. By the way, this Clause was included in the 2010 and 2016 Wage Revision Charters, even after the 2007 judgement of the Supreme Court! And even approved by the Government of India!

A clear case of 'Contempt of Court'.

The Supreme court has ruled in its 2007 judgment that this offending Clause is "Ultra Vires" i.e. beyond the reach of power, of the Chairman of LIC of India.

May we persuade these officials to look up the dictionary for the equivalent of 'ethics'?

Even walk the talk? But probably that is too tall an order!

However, rest assured dear friends, the truth will ultimately prevail. We will definitely get our dues in the near future. Didn't India win her freedom after decades, nay, a century of struggle? Even if none of us is around, our descendants will reap the benefits of our crusade against LIC's injustice.

Satyameva Jayate!

Priya

Request to LIC - Kindly treasure our trust too!

LIC's message to it policy-holders:
"Join hands for a plastic free, Swachch and Swasth Bharat. LIC wishes all a healthy and secured life on 150th birthday of Mahatma.We treasure your trust." (Sic)

Dear friends (the resigning ex-employees of LIC of India),

Let us pray to the Goddesses on this auspicious occasion of Navaratri, to din some good sense into the management of LIC of India!

Let the Goddess bestow on it, her divine benevolence and show it the true path of security and trust; way past all the usual rhetoric.

LIC has been faithfully betraying the trust of its resigning, ex-employees by willfully and unjustly repudiating their arrears; their hard-earned and legally rightful dues, since 1997.

How can they ever feel secure without their arrears and retirement benefits?

Or is LIC's trustworthiness and safety-net meant only for its existing employees and policy-holders?

A classic case of  'Out of sight, out of mind' and also 'out of the books of Accounts'?

How will the resigning ex-employees ever be healthy if they always worried about losing their hard-earned dues; and keep feeling cheated and betrayed by their ex-employer, LIC of India? After all, LIC is not even divulging the total amount repudiated by it till date and the number of ex-employees who have been short-changed by it! My RTI crusade is a case in point.

Mahatma Gandhi was an icon of trustworthiness, honesty, humility, integrity and truthfulness. A noble and exemplary leader! He never wronged anyone willfully. So we request the management of LIC of India to first walk the talk by paying all of us our long outstanding dues with interest and then invoke the great Mahatma Gandhi. Mere lip service is disgraceful!

Mahatma Gandhi was a barrister. Wonder how he would have reacted to LIC's Contempt of Court! 
LIC has been willfully defying a Supreme Court's judgment that states categorically that LIC must pay the dues to the resigning ex-employees as these are their fundamental rights and can't be waived or bartered away. There can be no separate rules for different classes of employees. The Chairman has acted 'in overreach of his powers'.

Only when its conscience is clear, can LIC say that it is invoking the historical legend. LIC, please pay up immediately! That would be a fitting and deserving tribute to him!

Food for thought? Or is LIC on a permanent fast?

Waiting for LIC's actual commitment toward the example of  Mahatma Gandhi!

Let us all vow to continue our peaceful Satyagraha for our arrears. 
Follow his dictum "Do or die!" 
Make Mahatma Gandhi proud of us! 

Priya

Make this Insurance Week 'Happy' for us too!

          The Insurance Week will undoubtedly be celebrated with great gusto by everyone in L.I.C. of India. A new term-insurance plan has been announced, statistics have been proudly bandied about, ads have been given with a flourish in all the major publications!

          While the assets amounting to a whopping Rs. 31.11 lakh crores are a feather in its cap, what about L.I.C's liabilities? 

          Most importantly, what about the liability that L.I.C. of India has towards its resigning ex-employees, whose arrears of wage revision and accruing retirement benefits' difference; have been callously and illegally repudiated by it, (deliberately ignoring a Supreme Court Judgment!), since more than two decades, since 1997; to be precise?

          This Insurance Week will be really 'happy' for us and worth celebrating doubly, if all of us who have been willfully wronged by the Corporation; get all our long outstanding dues with interest as per prevailing rates! 

          After all, we have equally contributed towards the Corporation's success!

We hope that the Managing Board of Directors of L.I.C. of India, the Finance Minister and the Prime Minister are listening!

Source: http://www.rtifoundationofindia.com

RTI Foundation of India

Information in respect of ex-employees of LIC who were denied salary arrears under wage revision Rule-2010 etc. was sought - CIC: Collating & compiling of information on all India basis would disproportionately divert the resources of the public authority 30 Apr, 2015 

ORDER 1. The appellant, Shri Sunny Chhabra, submitted RTI application dated 12.10.2013 Central Public Information Officer (CPIO), LIC of India, New Delhi seeking information in respect of ex-employees of LIC of India who have been denied salary arrears under wage revision Rule-2010, among all those employees, how many employees were in the court against the order of denial and how many ex-employees have been reimbursed their claim after appeal in any court or by any other way. 2. The CPIO vide letter dated 21.10.2013 informed the appellant that no ex-employee of Northern Zonal Office had been denied salary arrears under Wage Revision 2010. The information relating to employees of LIC of India working in all India (under all the 2048 branches, 113 Divisions and other 7 Zonal Offices) was not available. Therefore, collecting and collating this information from all the CPIOs would divert the resources of the public authority and hence could not be provided as allowed u/s 7(9) of the RTI Act. Dissatisfied with the reply of the CPIO, the appellant preferred an appeal on 17.11.2013 before the FAA. The FAA vide his order dated 28.11.2013 concurred with the reply of the CPIO. 3. Thereafter the appellant filed second appeal before the Commission. 4. The matter was heard by the Commission. The appellant did not attend the hearing inspite of a written notice having been sent to him. The respondents stated that as per instructions for implementation of the LIC of India Development Officers (Revision of Terms and Conditions of Service) Amendment Rules, 2010 issued by LIC of India, Central Office, Mumbai dated 11.10.2010, the employees whose resignation had been accepted on or before the date of notification irrespective of whether they are relieved or not or whose services had been terminated under LIC of India during the period between 1.8.2007 and 8.10.2010 (both days inclusive) shall not be eligible for the arrears on account of this revision. They added that they had provided information about the Northern Zonal Office and collecting and collating information from 17 Divisions of Northern Zone, 113 Divisions all over the country will result in disproportionate diversion of resources, particularly when each division had its independent CPIO. 5. Having considered the submissions of the parties and on perusing the relevant documents on file, the Commission holds that information pertaining to LIC of India, Northern Zonal Office had been provided to the appellant. Collating and compiling of information pertaining to employees of LIC of India on all India basis would disproportionately divert the resources of the public authority and attract the provisions of Section 7(9) of the RTI Act. The appellant did not attend the hearing to point-out any deficiencies in the information provided by the respondents. The appeal is disposed of.   (Manjula Prasher) Information Commissioner Citation: Shri Sunny Chhabra v. LIC of India in Appeal: No. CIC/MP/A/2014/000433

Read more at: http://www.rtifoundationofindia.com/information-respect-ex-employees-lic-who-were-deni#.XUPrEG1R21s

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Dear long-suffering, resigning ex-employees,

I felt a sense of deja vu on reading this judgment. It was similar to the one that I got to my RTI second appeal.

If we send RTI applications to each and every office of LIC, we will all become old and reach our graves, before we can elicit any information from the recalcitrant LIC management.

And this is just about the information! ☺Payment of arrears, etc. will probably remain a pipe-dream.

Get ready to take this battle into our next lives, that is if we are reborn as human-beings!

Till then, of course, we will fight tooth and nail, till our last breaths.

COME WHAT MAY! NEVER SAY DIE! NEVER GIVE UP! 

ZINDAGI KE SAATH BHI, ZINDAGI KE BAAD BHI! 

                                                                                                                              Priya

Loans to IL&FS: IndusInd Bank acted on assurance from SBI, LIC

Source:

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/stocks/news/loans-to-ilfs-indusind-bank-acted-on-assurance-from-sbi-lic/articleshow/69749547.cms

Loans to IL&FS: IndusInd Bank acted on assurance from SBI, LIC

The private lender had disclosed loans of Rs 3,000 crore to IL&FS and its group companies.

By 

Sachin Dave, Saloni Shukla ET Bureau|

Jun 12, 2019, 08.08 AM IST

Mumbai: Two key investors in Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services — Life Insurance Corporation and State Bank of India — had asked IndusInd Bank NSE -1.01 % to advance a loan to the group, going out of their way to provide assurances to the lender, just months before the default crisis hit the group, said two people with direct knowledge of the matter. 

SBI NSE -1.18 % and LIC had requested IndusInd for a loan to IL&FS Group with the assurance that the money would be returned after an upcoming Rs 4,500-crore rights issue, the people said. 

Following the assurances, IndusInd Bank lent about Rs 2,000 crore to the IL&FS Group in June 2018, most of which became a non-performing asset after the company went into default just two months later. 

“Several meetings between IndusInd Bank and the stakeholders were held in June last year, just two months before IL&FS went bust.” 

“The bank executives were under the impression that everything was on track, especially when the promoters were trying to keep the company afloat,” one person told ET. 

According to another person, the bank executives mentioned the meetings in their statement to the Serious Fraud Investigation Office. 

The senior executives accused in the case claim that the assurances by SBI and LIC had led them to believe that everything was on track and that they must continue with the daily operations normally. 

Emails sent to SBI and LIC did not elicit any response. 

“The bank’s exposure to the holding company of the infrastructure group referred to, per terms of sanction, carried some mandatory contractual prepayments from their originally planned rights issue/liquidity support via certain shareholders,” an IndusInd Bank spokesperson said. 

The private lender had disclosed loans of Rs 3,000 crore to IL&FS and its group companies. It made a 70 per cent provisioning on the loans to the holding company and created a 25 per cent provision cover on its exposure to the group’s special purpose vehicles. 

It wrote off Rs 1,000 crore of loan exposure to the group. 

Many senior executives who were part of IL&FS Financial Services (IFIN) are being investigated for their role in the alleged financial fraud. 

The SFIO has accused about 30 individuals and companies, including senior executives, independent directors and auditors of IFIN in its chargesheet. 

The SFIO is looking to widen the scope of its probe to other group companies. 

ET was the first to report on June 5 that the SFIO had begun investigations into IL&FS Transportation Network and the holding company. 

The ministry of corporate affairs on Monday took the unprecedented step of seeking a ban on auditors Deloitte Haskins & Sells and BSR & Co, a KPMG affiliate firm, for their alleged role in helping hide bad loans at IFIN.