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Pune jumbo hospital staff protest over salary dues
Around 100 staff working at the College Of Engineering Pune (COEP) jumbo facility staged protest.
Pune: Around 100 staff working at the College Of Engineering Pune (COEP) jumbo facility staged a protest on Wednesday against the management of the hospital complaining about pending payments. The protestors alleged that they have not received their salaries for the past four months and have not received the promised accommodation too.
One of the staff nurses who was appointed, requesting anonymity, said, “We were appointed for a six-month salary by the previous agency, Lifeline, but their contract got scrapped. Then the new agency hired us on the same condition of providing accommodation and on the same pay scale for the next three months. After they could not pay the bills for the hotel we had to vacate the hotel premises. Also, since September, we have not been paid out full salaries and only part payment was being paid monthly after multiple follow-ups every month. Despite our repeated attempts when the management did not respond, we had to take this extreme step.”
Abhijeet Gite, 23, another staff nurse from Beed, said, “We have come from another town to earn a living, but we are not being paid our rightful salary. The management is not responding to our queries. They have given us a letter stating that all our dues would be cleared by this month-end. However, we are not sure whether they will pay all the pay cuts or if they would start paying as promised from this month. Tomorrow, we will meet the PMC commissioner to put forward our request.”
PMC health chief Dr Ashish Bharti said, “We have made all the payments from our end. We have outsourced the facility to another agency and so the pending salary issue needs to be sorted out by the agency.” Attempts to reach Med Bros went unanswered.
The facility was opened on an emergency basis on COEP ground in August and was built by PMRDA and part payment for the same was made by PMC. The facility had come under fire by the citizens after the initial higher deaths rate wherein 7-8 deaths due to Covid19 were reported in just 24 hours.
