For the first time, the government has offered voluntary retirement scheme (VRS), named as Golden Gate, to the senior officials of the general insurers who have missed their promotions for three times consecutively.
Officers starting from the rank of chief managers to general managers are eligible to avail themselves the scheme which has been announced in the first week of December and will remain open for next two months.
Going by the existing regulations for promotion in the state owned insurance companies, any officials who have not been promoted after being included in the three consecutive selection exercises will not be considered for promotion for next two years.
An officer seeking voluntary separation under the scheme will be provided either one month?s salary for each completed year of service or salary for the number of months of remaining service or two years salary. The VRS compensation will be computed on the basis of the employees? salary as on date of retiring.
Though it is a fact that it has been very frustrating for a lot of officials who have missed their promotion to work in these companies and such a scheme would have been a much-awaited event, the scheme has drawn flak from the officials over the causes, the government has preferred to cite which should make officials to avail the VRS.
The VRS circular says, ?It is understood that once a person is sieved out and rested for two exercises, an opportunity would be made available to him to have self assessment, including an introspection with a view to decide about his potential capabilities to work in the changing atmosphere.?
Such assessment of capabilities of the officials would have to be judged from the view point of his strengths & weakness, ambitions, personal & family obligation, health, aptitude , enthusiasm, the changed scenario at the workplace and technological advancements .
The officials have pointed out that some officials didn?t get promotion is not due to their own faults. Nobody can clearly explain why some people get promotion while others don?t. Also, in another disturbing trend, it has been seen a lot of officials are opting out of the promotional exercises as they have to be transferred out of their parent companies.
?A lot new HR policies has demoralised the officials and affected their performance leading to the poor performance of these companies. If we avail the VRS , it would amount to accepting the causes of the government has mentioned in the notification,?? said the officials of various companies. M Ramadoss, the new chairman & managing director o New India Assurance said, ?The VRS is just an exit option provided to the officials who have missed their promotions. If they want they can continue working.??