NEW DELHI: Nurses working in hospitals run by Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC), an autonomous body under Ministry of Labour and Employment, have several complaints related to their working conditions, starting with a new transfer policy. According to this, nurses working in ESIC hospitals would be mandatorily transferred 9 years after working in a particular region.
“We have no problem with transfers as per the rules. But why can’t the govt transfer nurses to their choice stations when vacancies exist there? Over 90% of the nurses are female and the policy would greatly inconvenience them,” said Jodhraj Bairwa, secretary general of All India ESIC Nursing Officers’ Federation
ESIC transfers consist of three basic categories, tenure completion transfers, request transfers, and transfers on compassionate grounds. The first involves transfer upon completion of prescribed tenure and the latter two take into account any transfer request covering family issues including medical grounds, compassionate grounds, and choice station.
The nursing fraternity wants request transfers to be given precedence over tenure completion transfers. They demand that no nursing official should be mandatorily transferred out of her region due to completion of tenure whereas employees who are willing to get transferred to a preferred region should be allowed the transfer if vacancies are available in that particular region. This will assist in removing any communication barrier, and providing better care to patients, they claim.
“My transfer is due within next few months. My wife is employed as a nurse at AIIMS, Delhi. It will be a difficult situation if I am transferred to any station across the country. I have requested the government to withhold my transfer on compassionate grounds. I am confident that they have vacancies at my current place of employment,” said Rajendra Kumar, a senior nursing officer at ESIC, Rohini.
President of the nursing federation, Shanti Subramanium said, “We have tried reaching out to the Ministry of Labour and Employment multiple times in the last months regarding the transfer issue. However, we are yet to get a favourable response.”
“PM Modi, while reviewing the status of human resources in government and public sector departments and institutions, has instructed recruitment against all existing vacancies in the earliest,” he added.