GIC devpt officers fear loss of jobs

JULY 22: The over 13000 development officers (DOs) of the General Insurance Company (GIC) fear that the decision of the Insurance Regulato...

JULY 22: The over 13000 development officers (DOs) of the General Insurance Company (GIC) fear that the decision of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) to allow corporate agencies, brokerage firms and general agents will put their jobs on the line.

"We will be thrown out of our jobs," said Arunangshu Mondal, general secretary of the All India General Insurance Field Workers’ Association (AIGIFWA) and himself a DO. "The DOs are the main force behind marketing of general insurance products and account for almost 65 per cent of the total premium receipts," he added.

Moreover, there is no sign of the market growing significantly. Therefore, Mondal and other members of the association fear that since there will not be enough new business the new agencies and brokerage firms will snatch away their bread.

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AIGIFWA has already written to Union Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha, Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee, IRDA chairman N Rangachary and special secretary to the Ministry of Finance (insurance division) PK Banerjee to reconsider the decision. Representatives of the association are going to New Delhi on July 25 to plead with the authorities in this regard.

It would be followed up by agitation in the third week of next month and "eventually we will have to go on a hunger strike till death," he said. "To a large extent, it is due to the untiring efforts of this marketing force that the general insurance industry is what it is today," Mondal said.

Till today the DOs were bringing more business from corporate houses, banks, financial institutions, cooperatives and panchayats than anybody else, while agents were looking after the insurance needs of individuals, Mondal said. However, "now that the insurance industry has been opened up and IRDA has proposed restructuring of distribution channels through introduction of a brokerage system and corporate agents and revision of agency norms, our future has become uncertain," he added ruefully.