The Chandigarh administration on Tuesday decided to reinstate the 178 terminated National Health Mission (NHM) workers after they met UT adviser Dharam Pal and agreed upon withdrawing the court case.
During the meeting with the UT adviser, the terminated employees expressed their sincere apology and promised that such conduct will not be repeated in the future.
The staff requested that the orders for termination of contractual appointment be withdrawn, their contractual employment be counted without any break in service and the intervening period of absence be regularised with leave without pay.
They assured that they would like to continue as contractual employees under NHM and do not opt for the option of being outsourced employees on DC rates.
“After a detailed deliberation, the UT adviser accepted the demands of the NHM staff, but on some conditions. The adviser said that employees will have to submit a written request accepting the mistake. Also, they will have to voluntarily and unconditionally withdraw the pending court case on the issue and submit a copy of the withdrawal petition,” said UT health secretary Yashpal Garg.
He added that the salary under NHM cannot be equal to the DC rates because of the lesser working hours, better leave and other service conditions.
{{/usCountry}}He added that the salary under NHM cannot be equal to the DC rates because of the lesser working hours, better leave and other service conditions.
{{/usCountry}}However, the department may separately consider appropriate revision of the salary under NHM, but till then, the employees will have to work with previous pay scale, Garg said.
The NHM employees have filed a case — ‘Niranjan Kumar and others versus Union of India and others’ — in the Punjab and Haryana high court, hearing of which is due on January 12, 2022.
At least 500 NHM employees, working under the UT health department as doctors, paramedical staff and managerial employees including nursing officers, pharmacy officers, auxiliary nurse midwives, lab technicians, dental technicians and other Group-4 staffers, had been drawing salaries lower than the approved minimum wages since 2013.
In August, over 300 NHM workers had gone on indefinite leave to press their demand for equal wages for equal work. Following their continuous protest, the UT administration had given a written assurance of a salary hike.
The department had then offered revised working conditions for them against the salary hike. However, the services of the NHM workers were terminated on October 28 after they went on a strike without giving prior intimation.
Meanwhile, Amit Kumar, general secretary of the NHM union, said, “We will take back the court case and join the duties immediately after getting written assurance from the UT administration.”