Don’t pay Diwali bonus till finance ministry’s nod, PGIMER told

Communication from health ministry has come as a shocker to around 5,000 employees of the institute, including clerks, sanitation attendants, and nurses

The Union health ministry has asked autonomous health institutes, including the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, not to pay the Diwali bonus to a certain category of healthcare professionals until the Union finance ministry gives its nod for the same.

Official sources said that in a communication to the institute on November 2, Sunil Kumar Gupta, undersecretary in the health ministry, has said that the matter of grant of non-productivity bonus in favour of groups C, D and non-gazetted Group B employees of All India Institute of Medical Education and Research, New Delhi, other institutes of national importance and autonomous bodies of the health ministry has been taken up with the ministry of finance at the level of the minister of health and family welfare.

“However, the response of finance ministry is awaited. In view of above, you (director, PGIMER) are requested to await the decision of the ministry of finance and not to pay the non-productivity-linked bonus to employees of the institute for the year 2019-20,” the communication states.

It has come as a Diwali shocker to around 5,000 employees of the institute, including clerks, sanitation attendants, and nurses.

About ₹15 crores will be paid to approximately 5,000 group B (non-gazetted), C and D employees as non-productivity linked bonus. Group B includes nursing officers, office superintendents, and personal assistants; Group C comprises clerical staff on different pay scale levels, and Group D employees are hospital and sanitation attendants.

This has also prompted the PGIMER nurses’ association to shoot off a letter to the finance and health ministries, expressing displeasure over the move.

“Nurses have been working as frontline warriors for months to combat Covid-19 pandemic. Nursing officers at PGIMER are also working with full dedication and determination in routine and dedicated Covid hospitals where patients from Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, and Chandigarh are undergoing treatment and thus, bonus to employees should be released,” the nurses’ body has said.

Last year, too, the ministry of health had asked PGIMER to start the process to recover the bonus paid since 2015 on the pretext that the finance ministry has stopped issuing any such separate orders for payment of bonus to the employees of autonomous institutes.

At a standing finance committee meeting headed by then Union health secretary Preeti Sudan, PGIMER representatives had raised the agenda for regularisation of bonus payment for 2015-16, 2016-17, and 2017-18 on the lines of what was paid at AIIMS, New Delhi. The committee, however, had rejected the proposal stating that the finance ministry had not issued any order on bonus payment to autonomous body employees.

Similarly, the governing body meeting headed by the health minister too rejected the PGIMER authorities’ request for regularising bonus payment of previous years. The authorities had expressed the fear that discontinuation of bonus could result in a strike and hamper patient care. It was then decided to refer the matter again to the finance ministry for consideration.

However, institute’s officials refrained from commenting on the matter.