Two months after the decision, the UT health department on Tuesday withheld its decision of giving salaries to the National Health Mission (NHM) employees in Chandigarh as per the DC rate and said the decision needed to be re-examined carefully.
In the order, mission director, NHM, Chandigarh, said, “The aspect of pay to NHM staff as per the DC rate needs to be re-examined carefully after getting status from other UTs, Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. Till then the guidelines issued by the Central government for service conditions, including pay, will be strictly followed.”
Meanwhile, the 178 terminated NHM employees threatened to go on an indefinite hunger strike from Wednesday to press for their demand for rolling back their termination orders and hiking their salaries on par with the DC rate without revising working conditions.
The department had terminated 178 contractual NHM employees on October 28 after they missed their duties on October 27 to protest against the revised working conditions offered against a salary hike at the Government Multi-Specialty Hospital (GMSH), Sector 16.
“We have been protesting against the UT administration, but they are not ready to listen to our demands. The orders of termination came only in two hours. However, to press for our demands, we will go on a hunger strike from Wednesday and will continue to protest even on Diwali,” said Amit Kumar, general secretary of the NHM union, while adding that the administration was ready to give more salaries to outsourced staff but was intentionally harassing the NHM employees.
{{/usCountry}}“We have been protesting against the UT administration, but they are not ready to listen to our demands. The orders of termination came only in two hours. However, to press for our demands, we will go on a hunger strike from Wednesday and will continue to protest even on Diwali,” said Amit Kumar, general secretary of the NHM union, while adding that the administration was ready to give more salaries to outsourced staff but was intentionally harassing the NHM employees.
{{/usCountry}}Meanwhile, UT health secretary Yashpal Garg said, “Even if the NHM will take legal actions, we are ready to face it, but there is no chance of rolling back their termination orders. They have put the lives of hundreds of patients at risk by going on an unplanned strike and for us, providing patient care to the needy and saving their lives is our foremost priority. Even if we continue with their services, they may again go on strike and we cannot trust them anymore.”
Around 500 NHM employees, working under the UT health department as doctors, paramedical staff and managerial employees include nursing officers, pharmacy officers, auxiliary nurse midwives, lab technicians, dental technicians and other Group-4 staffers, have been working for salaries lower than the approved minimum wages since 2013.
Earlier in August, over 300 NHM workers went on indefinite leave for 12 days to press for their demand for equal wages for equal work. Following the continuous protest, the UT administration had given a written assurance of salary hike and written, “The finance department has no objection to meet the additional expenditure of ₹3.92 crore annually from the state budget for paying salaries on par with the DC rate to the NHM workers.”
The department then terminated 178 employees protesting against the government.
The order which has been withheld on Tuesday means that around 322 NHM employees will not get a salary hike as per the DC rate and they will have to continue working at the same salaries as now.