LIC staff to get off on 2nd and 4th Saturdays

LIC employees will soon get an off on every second and fourth Saturdays of a month with the government approving their long-standing demand.

According to official sources, this is in line with the practice followed for public sector banks.

The government has made changes in the Negotiable Instrument Act enabling employees of the LIC to get holiday at par with public sector banks, sources said.

LIC employees were demanding this for long, sources said, adding that the business would not be affected as other remaining Saturdays are full working days.

In case of a month having five Saturdays, LIC will be closed only on second and fourth Saturdays.

As of now, Saturday is a half working day for LIC staff. So instead of four half working day on Saturday, they will get two off and remaining Saturday of a month as full working day.

In 2015, the government accepted the long-pending demand of bank workers to declare second and fourth Saturdays as holidays, with effect from September 1.

LIC is the country's largest insurer. LIC reported premium income of more than Rs 2,23,854 crore for nine months to December 2017, up 11.47 per cent from Rs 2,00,818 crore a year ago.

New business performance grew 19.47 per cent to Rs 99,783.33 crore. The Corporation has already achieved its single premium target for the FY18 as on December 2017.

The company has collected Rs 62,385 crore as new premium income against Rs 51,004 crore a year ago, showing a growth of 22 per cent.