Unions oppose new appraisal system for insurance employees

Ten Central Trade Unions (CTUs) in the Opposition camp have urged the Centre to keep the “unilateral imposition” of Key Performance Indicators (KPI) for General Insurance Companies (GIC) in abeyance. The CTUs said in a letter to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman that the Department of Financial Services and General Insurers Public Sector Association (GIPSA) management have started implementing the KPI process without the approval of the boards of the insurance companies. “This is illegal and unconstitutional,” the CTUs said in the letter.

They said imposition of the KPI is severely affecting the health of the industry, the employees, agents, surveyors and the customers, citizens as hundreds of offices are proposed to be closed or merged in the name of KPI and restructuring. “Besides, the employees are restive that their long term settlement is already delayed by 64 months. They have been promised a raise on par with LIC (15%), but it has not seen the light of the day so far,” the CTUs said.

They said the “bell curve based performance appraisal” has already been understood as a failure and discarded by major organisations globally including many big multinational companies. “This is being done on the suggestions of external consultants who barely understand the intricacies involved and problems that may arise if such a system is implemented without detailed understanding, planning and a road map,” the CTUs said in the letter.

The CTUs said they fully concur with the stand of sectoral trade unions that final report of the consultants on KPI should be discussed with all stakeholders before implementing it and KPI must be kept in abeyance till then. “Government seems hell-bent on completing certain tasks related to weakening and thereby damaging the public sector to finally facilitate privatisation well before 2024,” the CTUs said in a statement.