HYDERABAD: As many as 250 sanitation workers of Gandhi Hospital have not yet received their salaries for the past two months. The workers, a majority of whom are women have been protesting at the entrance of Gandhi Medical College since two days. However, many doctors, medical students, hospital staff and even superintendent of the hospital pass through the entrance without even glancing at the protesters.
The sanitation workers have been receiving a net salary of `9,800 per month since April 2016, which includes Provident Fund and ESI (Employees’ State Insurance), before which they used to receive `4,300 per month as salary.
The issue’s main contention is that the director of Medical Education’s office is of the opinion that the 250 sanitation workers were getting paid more than what they should have been and wants it to be reverted to `4,300 per month.
The outsourcing agency of sanitation workers in Gandhi Hospital, GJR Services started paying the salary of around `9,800 per month from April last year as part of the hike in salaries of sanitation workers in accordance with Government Order 68. As part of this, salaries of sanitation workers were also hiked in other government hospitals, including Osmania General Hospital and Niloufer Hospital.
However, the DME’s office has found fault with hiking of salary in Gandhi Hospital for which the reason has been given that it was done without permission from principal secretary of health department, for which Dr M Ramani, DME, blamed Dr JV Reddy, the then superintendent of Gandhi Hospital. When contacted, Dr JV Reddy, said, “How can one hospital get permission while other does not. The hike was in accordance with a GO that applies for every government organisation.”
Moreover, in a minutes of a meeting of superintendents conducted in July 2016, accessed by Express, the superintendents were ordered by DME to instruct the outsourcing agency to implement GO 68 and 43 regarding hiking of salaries