Contractual staff continue strike at P’kula Civil Hospital

Tribune News Service

Panchkula, January 22

Even after seven days, over 300 contractual workers at the Civil Hospital in Sector 6 here have got no relief. They have been on strike since January 16, demanding their provident funds and arrears be paid to them. While they claim that the hospital administration has turned a blind eye towards them, the protestors continue to brave the cold as they sit outside the hospital gate in protest.

On Friday, these workers took their protest to the administration and protested outside the Mini-Secretariat in Sector 1, here.

Satish Kumar, secretary of the contractual workers union of the hospital, said DC Gauri Prashar Joshi assured them that their problems will be solved soon, but nothing had been done yet.

The protestors claim that no one from the hospital administration, district administration or from the contractor’s side had come to talk to them. Over 300 protesters have been sitting outside the gate number 1 of the hospital in protest. They include sweepers, lift operators and computer operators among others.

The protestors have been demanding that their dues be cleared and the employees, who were fired by the contractor, be reinstated. In a memorandum submitted to the DC on Friday, they have asked that the contract of M/s Sunrise facilitators private limited be ended immediately and a new contractor be employed.

While Panchkula Civil Surgeon Dr VK Bansal had said on January 16 that he would issue a show-cause notice to the contractor to resolve the issue, hospital’s in-charge and principal medical officer Dr Veena Singh today said: “The issue will be resolved tomorrow as the workers will be issued fresh letters to rejoin tomorrow.”

The same employees had protested about a month ago and the contractor had then given in writing that he would soon clear their dues. The protesters said he was unwilling to do so and this led to the protest. They added that some of their co-workers had been fired for unjust reasons and demanded their re-employment.