Karnataka Health Minister K Sudhakar on Thursday, July 7, said the state government cannot consider “contractual staff as permanent employees” amid protests by health workers in Bengaluru.
Over 5,000 contractual health workers employed under the National Health Mission (NHM), staged a protest in Bengaluru’s Freedom Park, demanding job security, equal pay, extension of the health insurance scheme, paid leave, among others.
“We want the government to implement the Srinivasachari committee report. If at least 70 per cent of our demands including job permanency, transfer among others is implemented, our workers will benefit,” Shrikanth Swamy, General Secretary of the Karnataka State Health and Medical Education Department Contractual and Outsource Employees’ Association (KSHCOEA), said.
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“Where should those who have worked for 10-15 years go after their contract expires? We had protested in 2019 as well, for three days. Since then, no one has paid heed to our demands. There are only empty promises,” he added.
Mahadevi Mistri, who has been a nursing officer for 16 years, said there has been no hike in her salary since she started working as a contractual health worker. “There has been no hike in my salary. We also have access to no basic amenities. We’re working leaving our elderly parents at home. But the government is not showing no interest in addressing our issues.”
Terming the demands of the health workers for permanent jobs as “unreasonable,” Sudhakar said, “We cannot consider a contractual staff as a permanent employee. No law will allow us to do it.”
“This is one of the primary reasons why the government goes for contract staff. NHM is for a stipulated time. That is the only reason why the NHM has been implementing programmes across the country,” he said.
However, the Karnataka health minister said the government will soon revise the compensation of the contract and outsourced workers and assured that it is committed to fulfilling the demands to the extent feasible.
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