Dear Mr. Tan Kin Lian,
I have been a strong supporter of Income for many years. My family has several policies with Income. I am also a member of NTUC union.
You said that the bonus cut by Income is unilateral and arbitrary. Is this the proper behaviour for a cooperative soceity. I thought that the coop acts in an open, transparent manner and look after the interest of the policyholders. This behaviour is as bad as the commercial companies, maybe even worse. Is there any body in the board and management of Income that understand coop values? What about the NTUC?
REPLY
As you are a union member, you can bring this matter up with the leaders of NTUC. They have been promoting cooperative principles and values and wish to see the NTUC cooperatives behave differently from commercial companies. Maybe, the NTUC leaders can intervene to rectify this matter.
In my frank opinion, the cut in bonus is to the detriment of the policyholders. It will destroy the trust of policyholders in NTUC Income and in the NTUC as a whole (as many union members are affected).
NTuc is losing sight of its original cooperative goals and the management is caught up with their own agenda.To be different from its predeccesors and to get out of the shadow of the old management it is toying with strategies that result in dismantling the value structures that have served the people well. Ntuc was a man in the street oreinted company which aimed to give the best deal to the people. It wasn't trying to show off to the other commercial companies that it was a better and competing for market share. It was competing to give the best to the people, the man in the street , who is often marginalised becuase of their inability to afford insurance.NTuc came in to fill the gap.
ReplyDeleteAlas, ntuc is straying and the new management is merely paying lip service to cooperative principles and manipulating them to serve personal interest and ego, to be #1.The missions and the visions are craps and are for show. The greedy agents are collaborators.This is regrettable that as a result old faithful policyholders will take the brunt of bonus cut and other changes.
Old policyholders mustn't give up the fight. This is your right. Cutting the annual bonus is a breach of contract.
Sometimes I wonder who is supposed to be cooperative, the policyholders or the company? It looks like the policyholders, because we are now asked to cooperate with the company by accepting the bonus cut. Income looks like it is reneging the cooperative values and principles. Then it should declare to public that it is shedding off this image and it is a profit oriented and mercenary company,and to stop misleading the public.
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