CHENNAI: After various protests launched by government doctors demanding pay parity with their Central government counterparts, the Health and Family Welfare Department constituted a working group to frame a draft report on the matter recently.
According to a senior Health department official, the working group was constituted on September 19. The Director of Medical Services, the Director of Public Health and the Director of Medical Education, two members from the Joint Action Committee of Government Doctors Association and a member not below the level of the Additional Secretary are part of the working group.
“We will analyse the salary report of government doctors in other states and look into their working conditions,” he said.
“The working group will come up with a report within four weeks on the factual status and appropriate recommendations to resolve the grievances with an emphasis on comprehensive review of implementation status of the Government Order No. 354 on salary revision,” said the minutes of the meeting conducted by Health Minister C Vijaya Baskar.
To ensure that patient care and regular work is not affected, it was decided to put on hold all forms of protest for the next four weeks,” the minutes of the meeting report said.
The government doctors have long been demanding salary hike in parity with Central government doctors and held various protests over the issue. The doctors said the entry-level salary for state government doctors and Central government doctors is the same, but in Central government, the promotions are quicker, as also the increase in salary. But in the state government the promotions are delayed at least by 10 years.