Thursday, May 05, 2005

New or re-conditioned parts?

Editor
Forum Page
Straits Times

I refer to the article in St Times May 2, 2005.

It reported that Mr Abdul Masood was unhappy that the repair to his 7 year old van was done using second-hand parts.

I wish to inform the public that insurers generally practice the following guidelines on the repair of vehciles. This is posted at the website for General Insurance Assocation and stated in the consumer guide that is made available to the public:

quote:
The aim of most policies is to have your vehicle restored to a condition similar to the one it was in before the accident. Based on this principle, for a relatively new vehicle, damaged items will usually be replaced with new parts, which are either genuine or OEM (original equipment manufacturer) parts.

However, for vehicles more than three years old the insurer might opt to use good-quality reconditioned parts. Such parts are carefully checked to ensure they do not compromise the safety or roadworthiness of the vehicle. A six-month warranty for repairs is usually provided by the workshop.
unquote

I wish to state that the practice adopted by NTUC Income conforms with the market practice. Our aim is to give the appropriate repair at a reasonable cost, so that motor insurance premiums can be kept low.

Tan Kin Lian
Chief Executive Officer

Work-life Balance

Editor
Today Paper

I refer to Ms Lena Soh Kwee Kim's letter "Work-life balance: Bosses too have part to play" (ST, May 3).

Ms Soh asked bosses to be flexible in giving concessions to all employees to help them deal with stress, work and family demands. I agree with this view.

I wish to share some of our practices in NTUC Income.

We believe that a competent and happy employee is able to give better service to our customers. We encourage our employees to achieve a balanced work-life and a healthy lifestyle. This is done without sacrificing our competitive edge or increasing business costs.

Our employees enjoy the following schemes:

- flexible working hours
- part-time work
- telework, working from home

Our flexible working hours is most popular. Our employees can choose to start work at any time between 7.30 to 9.30 a.m. and to work 8 hours during the day.

About 300 employees, or 25% of the workforce, have opted for a different starting time, according to their individual need.

Last year, we introduced a one month paid leave for an employee who has completed
three years of service. This benefit cost 3% of payroll but is offset by the savings of 3% in employer CPF contribution.

Our employees enjoyed this benefit, as they can spend time with their family and friends, learn a special skill, or take an extended overseas vacation.

Our human resource practices have made a positive impact on our employees, leading to a high satisfaction score and a low turnover rate for our employees.

In our regular survey, our employees voted the work-life balance to be a strong
positive factor in our work environment.

Tan Kin Lian
Chief Executive Officer
NTUC Income

Sunday, May 01, 2005

Lower premium for female motorists

From 1 July 2005, female motorists insured with NTUC Income will enjoy a 6% reduction in premium rates.

Based on our past year's claim experience, female drivers have lower average claim cost.

The lower claim cost reflect that females are involved in less serious accidents and have lower repair cost. Perhaps they also use their cars less often, due to their indoor occupation.

NTUC Income has the largest market share of motor insurance, representing about 43% of all vehicles in Singapore. Our dominant share is attributed to our competitive premium rates and satisfactory quality of service.

Cash settlement for minor accidents

NTUC Income is implementing cash settlement for minor accidents from 16 May 2005:

- On-the-Spot Cash Settlement.
- Get the repair done at your workshop and keep the difference
- Within 7 days, you can return the cheque and ask us to repair the vehicle.

Our cash settlement centres are open Monday to Friday, 9am to 6pm at:

- STAC Sin Ming Road, 302 Sin Ming Rd, S'pore 575627
- STAC Portsdown, 5 Portsdown Rd, S'pore 139296
- NACS Paya Ubi, 51 Ubi Ave 1 #01-25, Paya Ubi Industrial Park

Hotline: 6788 6616.

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