Chandigarh sacks 178 National Health Mission employees on strike

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 29

The UT Administration today terminated the services of 178 contractual employees working under the National Health Mission (NHM) for holding a strike when the city was reeling under dengue and Covid-19 outbreak.

The service termination letter issued by UT Health Secretary Yashpal Garg read, “Presently, the city is grappling with an unprecedented health crisis with illnesses like Covid, dengue, malaria, acute fever with thrombocytopenia and other vector-borne diseases having spread.

Almost all health facilities have patients more than their capacities.”

“Such times call for extraordinary commitment and dedication, both from professional as well as humane aspects. It has been observed that on certain occasions, health services in the city have been adversely affected because of your sudden absence/resorting to strike,” the letter citing reasons for termination further read.

“From October 28, the contractual employees had proceeded on strike despite knowing the gravity of this unprecedented health crisis prevailing in Chandigarh. Such highly irresponsible conduct has put the lives of a large number of patients at serious risk, which clearly indicates that you cannot be relied upon to provide uninterrupted patient care in the UT,” stated Garg.

“The termination letters cite this misconduct a gross violation of the terms and conditions of the contractual appointment,” it stated.

Security beefed up at GMSH-16

UT Health Secretary Yashpal Garg has requested the SSP to make security arrangements at the GMSH-16 and other health institutions in the city. Garg said the sacked NHM staff were not allowed to enter any of the health facilities of the UT Administration.

Strike to continue: Employees

Amit Kumar, general secretary of the NHM Employees’ Union, Chandigarh, said, “All employees were fired without any prior notice, which has infuriated them. Today, the employees were not even allowed to enter the GMSH. The strike will continue for the next three days and will be intensified.”

What NHM staff demand

Over 300 NHM workers went on an indefinite strike in August to demand equal wages for equal work. The UT Administration had then given a written assurance on a salary hike on a par with the DC rate. The NHM employees were recently asked to fill a consent form with revised terms and conditions as per which their working hours and leaves will be revised if they wanted their salaries on a par with the DC rate.