PIMS union demands salary as per norms

Ajay Joshi

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, October 18

A fresh row has erupted over the long time controversy between the Punjab Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) Employees Union/Association and state government.

Members of the union of PIMS employees association had earlier alleged that the directors of the medical institute do not pay salaries as per the norms of the labour laws and the state government.

Therefore, after receiving unfavourable judgement from the Labour Court, the members had appealed in Punjab and Haryana High Court.

In this regard, High Court in its orders has notified the directors of PIMS to comply with the terms and conditions of the said norms.

Members of the union have also challenged the ‘Sanction Letter’ offered to the institute by the government on the basis of ‘No Objection Certificate’ (NOC). The High Court have issued the ‘Notice of Motion’ for March 18 next year due to the failure of the institutes to initiate an action even after sending several notices.

Members of the union have so far sent three notices to the PIMS authorities this year. However, the authorities didn’t respond to any letter.

Dharmendra Kumar,secretary and Narendra Kumar, the president of the employees union, said last year, during their services they had organised a protest on May 12 against the arbitrary attitude of the authorities concerned towards providing them salaries as per the government pay scale, although the matter was closed then directors had promised to hear their demands, in spite of that nothing had happened in this regard and they both were terminated in September 2017.

Dharmendra said, a medical lab technician should be paid Rs 40,000. However, he and other workers were paid Rs10,000 to 20,000 even after years of service. Hence challenging the sanction letter of the institute, the members of the union said, PIMS should also be sealed in a similar way the Gian Sagar Medical College at Banaur was closed.