Employees of the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India are observing a day-long strike on Thursday (March 18) to protest against the Centre’s decision to reduce its stake in the corporation through an initialpublic offering. This comes just two days after lakhs of public sector bank employees went on a two-day nationwide strike against the proposed privatisation of two public sector lenders. Established in 1956, LIC has about 1,14,000 employees and over 29 crore policyholders.

Who is protesting?

While the Joint Front of Unions in public sector general insurance companies observed a day-long strike on March 17 against privatisation and FDI hike in insurance, the unions of LIC are opposing the initial public offering (IPO) of the insurance giant on March 18. The National Federation of Insurance Field Workers’ of India (NFIFWI) has decided to go on a two-hour walk-out strike on Thursday.

Why are they protesting?

The All India Insurance Employees’ Association (AIIEA) has called the strike jointly with other trade unions to protest against the Centre's three proposals, saying that they are against the interest of the insurance industry, the country’s economy, and people. Shreekant Mishra, the AIIEA general secretary, said that the proposed disinvestment was the first step towards privatisation of LIC, adding that the Centre's plan to launch the IPO will violate the “very objectives” of LIC's creation.

What services will be affected?

Some of the services such as claim settlement, premium collection, payments at the offices of these insurance companies and underwriting of policies are likely to get hit following the announcement of the strike.

What did Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman say in her speech?

In her Budget speech in February, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the Centre had decided to launch an initial public offering (IPO) of LIC. She further said the government had set a disinvestment target of Rs 1.75 crore from sales of its stakes in public-sector undertakings and financial institutions.

“A number of transactions — Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd, Air India, Shipping Corporation of India, Container Corporation of India, IDBI Bank, BEML, Pawan Hans and Neelachal Ispat Nigam Ltd — among others are proposed to be completed in FY 2021-22,” Sitharaman had said in her Budget speech.

The finance minister said the government was planning to fund the social sector and developmental programmes from the proceeds generated via its disinvestment efforts. Besides IDBI, two other public sector banks are on its list for disinvestment in the 2021-22 fiscal.

What was Nirmala Sitharaman's message to bank employees on March 16?

On Tuesday (March 16), Nirmala Sitharaman assured the employees of banks likely to go under the hammer that their interests — whether related to salaries or pensions — will be protected. Even those institutions that are likely to be privatised are going to function after the process, Sitharaman said, adding “we have to ensure the interest of the staff is protected”.

“So, we will ensure that we are not going to be disinvesting or we are not going to sell them off because whatever happened to them, we are not worried. We want financial institutions to get more equity, more people to put money into them to make them sustainable,” she had said in a press conference.