Patiala, July 28:- Outsourced fourth class employees, who have been working in various health institutions of Punjab for a long time, staged a protest at the Government Mata Kaushalya Hospital Complex located at the Civil Surgeon's Office regarding their pending demands and took out a protest rally to draw the attention of the Health Minister to their demands and marched to Capital Cinema Chowk.
State President Darshan Singh Lubana said that outsourced employees working in research, medical education, civil hospitals, dispensaries and Aam Aadmi clinics should be brought under the ambit of minimum wage, their economic exploitation should be stopped and their service data should be updated on the HRMS portal.
He demanded that the contractual system be abolished and these employees should be regularized in the Health Department. Apart from this, EPF, ESI, identity card, fixed duty hours, weekly leave and casual and medical leave facilities should also be provided as per the instructions of the National Health Mission.
The protesters also burnt the government's effigy in protest against the alleged lathi charge on sanitation workers and sewermen. The leaders announced that a 24-hour hunger strike would be held at the Government Mata Kaushalya Hospital on August 14 and 15, while a flag march would be taken out on August 15. They said that this struggle would also be carried out at all the district headquarters of Punjab.
They said that on this occasion, memorandums regarding other pending demands including regularization of employees, pensioners and casual employees, abolition of the contractual system, restoration of the old pension scheme and fixing a minimum salary of ?40,000 per month will also be given.
The protest was addressed by state president Darshan Singh Lubana, Deep Chand Hans, Ram Lal Rama, Shiv Charan, Ram Prasad Sahota, Rakesh Golu, Arun Kumar, Suraj Pal Yadav, Dharmendra, Inderpal Walia, Lakhvir Lucky, Mod Nath, Ajay Kumar, Tarsem, Amar Nath, Ajay Sanour, Onkar Singh Daman, Sunita, Monica, Kamlesh Rani (Goni), Mehar Singh, Prem Chawla, Rajesh Kumar, Varinder Gagat, Lakhvir Singh, Swaran Singh, Harjinder, Jugnu Sahota, Satinarayan Goni, Prakash Singh Lubana, Tarlochan Maru and Baljit Balli, among other leaders. The union leaders said that the increase in the salaries of sanitation workers and sewermen is insufficient. They demanded that regular appointments of these employees be made without any delay and that the increase in salaries be also applied to all the informal sanitation workers and employees working in government and semi-government institutions.