Kathmandu: Nepal Life Insurance Limited (NLIC) has announced a voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) for office helpers to deputy managers designation. The board of directors (BODs) and top-level management have announced such a scheme in a move to downsize the workforce by 40 percent.
Employees have criticized the move on the ground that the scheme has been announced in a move to control the employees’ union’s influence. There are above 700 manpower directly employed in NLIC.
Company’s Chief Executive Officer Pravin Raman Parajuli issued a notice on Friday evening and announced ‘VRS’ for the employees having educational qualifications of higher secondary school level (plus two) or below with at least one year of service. Interested employees have been called to submit their applications from 8th to 25th Falgun 2079.
The company has announced that the VRS benefits will be calculated on the basic salary only. The employees opting for VRS will get only 60 percent of their total salary.
For example, although a junior officer himself has a monthly pay of Rs. 59,000, the VRS benefits will be calculated at Rs. 35,400 per month. Further gain tax as per prevailing law will too be deducted.
The minimum benefits guaranteed for the VRS are 19 months’ basic pay up to Office helper (Peon) and Driver level, 16 months’ basic pay for Junior Assistant to Assistant level, 13 months’ basic pay for Junior Officer to Senior Officer, 11 months’ basic pay for Assistant Manager to Deputy Manager. Apart from it, additional benefits are calculated on the basis of the service period too has been offered. The BODs has offered 11 months’ basic pay against the service up to 5 years for office helper, 13 months’ basic pay for junior assistant to assistant, 11 months’ basic pay for a junior officer to a senior officer, and 8 months’ basic pay for an assistant manager to deputy manager.
The insurer has also declared that only complete service years will be counted, and even a period of 11 months will not be entertained for the VRS benefit calculation purpose.
The VRS has been launched based on the ‘Voluntary Retirement Scheme 2079’ approved by the 350th meeting of the BODs.
