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Covid impact: Staff at Ludhiana hospital go on strike against pay cut
Protestors said payment of casual leave and emergency leave was also deducted.
Over 50 paramedical staff of Mohandai Oswal Hospital, near Sherpur Chowk, went on a strike on Wednesday to protest against pay cut.
As employees received their salary slips in morning, they confronted the hospital management leading to heated arguments. Following this, the nursing staff and other employees gathered outside the hospital in protest, ignoring need for social distancing.
They said their pay was deducted without prior notice, and salaries of some nurses were also not paid in lieu absence.
Last month the hospital management had sent the staff on five-day holiday to control the spread of Covid-19, they said. But now, the hospital had not paid them for those five days, and for unavailed leaves.
“Majority of the nurses draw a monthly salary of ₹12,000, of which ₹5,000 has been deducted. The management says that the cut has been imposed due to the financial crisis caused by the Covid-19 lockdown,” said one of the protesters.
“When we raised objections, the management misbehaved with us. How are we supposed to run our households? We are already doing a crucial duty and handling suspected patients. To top it all, we have been subjected to such an unfair treatment,” another protester said.
Repeated calls and messages failed to evoke any response from Yogendra Awadhya, head operations of the hospital.
