Around 700 employees of Primary Health Centres (PHC) in Vadodara district went on a mass informal go away and submitted a memorandum to the District Development Officer (DDO) on Tuesday threatening to boycott the Covid-19 vaccination drive if points pertaining to their salaries weren’t resolved.
The employees, who gathered on the workplace of the DDO at Sardar Bhavan in Vadodara with banners and placards, alleged that their salaries for 2 months had been unpaid. The well being centre employees, employed via contract outsourcing, are demanding to incorporate fastened pay, provident fund advantages, uniforms and medical help as a part of their reimbursement system.
A consultant of the employees stated, “The government has accorded the title of ‘corona warriors’ to us but this title is not enough to run a household for the month. Our salary has not been paid for two months.”
The employees added that they’ll exclude themselves from the upcoming Covid-19 vaccination drive if their calls for usually are not met.
“We want the administration to discontinue this outsourcing of contract to agencies and hire us directly. The contract agencies financially exploit the staff members and do not allow benefits to pass… Why should we continue to put our lives at risk or join the vaccination drive when the administration has no compassion for us,” stated one other consultant.
An official of the district administration stated that whereas the problem is between contracting businesses and their workforce, “talks will be held” with the businesses to deal with the problems raised by the employees.
