CHENNAI:: Nearly 4,000 doctors belonging to the Tamil Nadu Service Doctors and Postgraduates Association reported to work on Tuesday wearing demand badges. Their primary demands included pay parity with Central government doctors in line with the Seventh Pay Commission norms.
"While all the other state government employees were protesting for allowance parity with the central government staff, we doctors are requesting the state to add us to the pay band IV scale within 13 years of service, instead of 20 years," said P Saminathan, the association general secretary.
He also said that though the workload was twice that of Central government staff, they were being paid 40 per cent less.
The demand badge which the doctors were wearing also stressed the need for reviving the old pension scheme and creating a corpus fund to compensate families of doctors who died in service.
"Since 70 per cent of doctors in State-run medical institutions are women, the State should also introduce 'Child Care Leave' for women doctors, as in Tripura and West Bengal," Saminathan told Express. He said women doctors could then take leave up to 2 years to take care of their children.
The doctors intended to wear the badges on duty till Thursday and were planning to organise a protest in Chennai on Friday on these issues.