During the meeting held last Friday, employees demanded that the government fulfill their demands immediately.[break]
The ministry, which is the parent authority of the IB, on the other hand, asked the employees to go back to work first, but didn´t agree to make any commitments on addressing their demands.
This was the first time the two sides had met ever since the protest broke out on Nov 20.
The employees of the IB launched the protest saying that the management had failed to meet the conditions of the written agreement signed some two years ago.
During that time, the staff had asked the management to provide daily allowance of Rs 150 to each employee, introduce housing plan for the workforce and send each staff member on a 15-day forced leave every year.
Other demands included annual distribution of additional five months of salary and allowances such as festival and vacation allowance, modification of voluntary retirement scheme and change in organizational structure keeping in view growing workload of the Board.
“At that time, the management was positive toward our demands and had also signed an agreement to fulfill it gradually,” said Purna Bahadur Thapa, president of Employees Association of Insurance Board.
But after the employees didn´t notice any changes for a year, a protest was held last November, which was called off later after the management agreed to address the demands.
“The protest that is being held this year is a continuation of what was organized last year,” Thapa added.
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