E-Paper
Chandigarh health dept discontinues services of 81 contractual health workers
Chandigarh health secretary Yashpal Garg said the department was facing financial issues and they were unable to pay salaries
The outsourced healthcare workers, who were recruited by the UT health department to handle the Covid-19 outbreak, protested on Friday after the department decided to discontinue the services of 81 of them due to unavailability of funds.
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 outbreak.
“Keeping in view the ebbing Covid-19 cases and financial situation of the National Health Mission (NHM), Chandigarh, the UT health department has decided to discontinue the services of 81 additional workers. Due to unavailability of funds, the department cannot pay salaries to the staff after September. The contracts of staff will not be renewed in a phased manner,” said the director, health services, in a letter to the staff on September 30.
The letter further read that, “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.”
After receiving the letters, the outsourced staff staged a protest at Government Multi-Speciality Hospital (GMSH), Sector 16. The healthcare workers, who are demanding renewal of their contracts, will continue their protest on October 2.
“The staff was hired during an emergency situation. Each and every healthcare worker has worked around the clock to provide medical services during the Covid-19 surge, especially during the peak of the second wave in May this year. Now, the UT health department is terminating our services. The Covid warriors must be respected and their contacts should be renewed,” said one of the protesters.
UT health secretary Yashpal Garg said, “During the Covid crisis, the healthcare workers were outsourced for a short period of time, three or six months. The department is facing financial issues and we cannot pay salaries to employees. Also, we do not have any vacant posts available for regularising their jobs. Since the employees were told in advance about their temporary hiring, there is no point in protesting. We will outsource them again, if need arises.”
