Chandigarh: Contractual health workers’ protest enters Day 5

Contractual health workers raised slogans against Chandigarh administration at Sector 17 market and also met UT adviser

The outsourced health workers, whose services were discontinued by the UT health department citing unavailability of funds, protested for the fifth consecutive day on Tuesday and demanded renewal of their contracts.

The services of 81 contractual health workers were discontinued by Chandigarh health department citing unavailability of funds. (HT FILE PHOTO)

The employees raised slogans against the UT administration at Sector 17 market. They also met UT adviser Dharampal Singh and pressed for their demands.

The UT health department had outsourced as many as 351 healthcare workers, including nurses, sweepers, data entry operators, security guards and others, to handle the Covid outbreak.

As per the health department, the contracts of staff were not renewed October 1 onwards. In the first phase, the services of the staff of PU International Hostel (converted into Covid care centre) will be discontinued. In the next phase, services of 20% more staff will be terminated. If need arises, the situation will be assessed every 15 days and decisions will be made accordingly.