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Chandigarh: PGIMER technical staff await ₹41-crore pending arrears
Technical staff at PGIMER comprise professionals conducting first and second line of testing. Their duties include conducting complete blood count, CT scan, MRI, ECG, histopathological testing.
More than 500 technical staff members of the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, are yet to receive arrears amounting to a total of ₹41 crore as per the five-tier cadre structure despite the authorities approving it in May. The delay in implementing the cadre restructure has left the technical employees, who are responsible for conducting over 10,000 tests in the institute daily, concerned.
During the institute body meeting on May 16, the apex body of the PGIMER approved restructuring the cadre of technical staff, but it has not happened yet. With the restructure of technical staff cadre and having a five-tier system, the PGIMER is bound to pay ₹41 crore pending since 1992 as per their promotion. In July, PGIMER constituted a five-member committee to look into the matter of restructuring and were directed to check the number of employees including those who have retired since 1992, who are bound to get promotional benefits in the five-tier system. But technical staff alleged that they haven’t received any positive outcome.
Technical staff in the PGIMER include all professionals conducting first and second line of testing. Their duties include conducting complete blood count, CT scan, MRI, ECG, histopathological testing, etc. There are 527 posts of lab technician, 122 of X-ray technician and 36 of radiotherapist.
So far, technical staff retire at level 3 i.e the post of technical assistant and many stay on this post for decades without any promotion. With the five-tier system, technical assistants will be promoted to lab supervisor and senior technical officer.
In a letter to PGI director Dr Vivek Lal, the PGI Medical Technologists Union requested the time-bound implemention of the cadre restructure order.
According to PGIMER estimates, the financial implications of technical cadre restructure from 1992 to 2019 is ₹41,30,99,109. Of this, ₹33 crore is for laboratory technicians, ₹6 crore for X-ray technicians and ₹1 crore for radiotherapists. Many of those who will benefit retired in the ‘90s and 2000 and would be in their 70s or 80s.
PGI Medical Technologists Union former president Dr RK Garg said AIIMS and JIPMER, Puducherry implemented the five-level cadre system for technical staff in 2017, but PGIMER has taken more than a decade to do so even after the central tribunal court’s judgment in favour of the technical staff cadre restructure in 2013.
A senior technician working at PGIMER said, “Many of our seniors retired after remaining on the same post for three decades. It brought stagnation and was demoralising.”
Though the orders were issued on May 16 at the 118th meeting of the institute body, the union has been demanding restructuring the cadre since 1994. Pankaj Rai, deputy director, PGIMER, said, “The committee has been constituted and we are trying to implement the five-tier cadre structure as soon as possible.”
