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Chandigarh: NHM employees end protest after admn okays pay hike
Up in arms for the past 12 days, over 300 National Health Mission employees in Chandigarh ended their protest after the administration gave them a written assurance of increasing their salaries
Up in arms for the past 12 days, over 300 National Health Mission (NHM) employees in Chandigarh ended their protest on Friday after the UT administration gave them a written assurance of increasing their salaries.
The NHM employees had started their indefinite protest against the central government and Chandigarh administration on August 23, to push their demand for equal pay for equal work. The protest had hit various services at government health and wellness centres, especially in rural areas.
NHM employees working under the UT health department as paramedical staff and managerial employees include nursing officers, pharmacy officers, auxiliary nurse midwives, lab technicians, dental technicians and other Group-4 staffers. They have been working for salaries lower than the approved minimum wages since 2013.
“The protest has been called off after the administration gave us a written assurance about hiking our salaries. This demand for respectable wages has been pending since 2013. The staff was elated as they got justice after several years,” said Amit Kumar, general secretary, NHM Union.
Will pay out of own budget
After the central government refused to increase the annual NHM budget for Chandigarh, the UT health department had sent a proposal to the finance department to increase the salaries of the protesting staff from the state budget.
On Friday, the finance and planning officer of the UT administration wrote a letter to the principal secretary, health, stating that the finance department has no objection to the proposal to meet the additional expenditure of ₹3.92 crore per annum from the state budget to pay salaries to NHM staff in Chandigarh as per the DC rates.
However, the health department has been advised to consider rationalisation of human resources deployed under the NHM in near future, as advised by the Union ministry of health and family welfare, the letter stated.
Director, health services, Dr Amandeep Kang said: “The NHM staff has contributed their effortless services in the pandemic. They were getting low salaries even while doing equal work as the other staff. Thanks to UT adviser Dharam Pal and the administration, their long-pending demand has been fulfilled.”
