BENGALURU: Members of the Karnataka State Health Contractual and Outsourced Employees’ Association (KSHCOEA), who are at the forefront of battle against Covid, have raised issues of lack of Covid incentives, medical expense reimbursements, job security and more.
The State Government recently agreed to sanction Covid-risk incentives to clinical cadres, but excluded all contractual and outsourced employees, KSHCOEA pointed out.In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, they said that like regular health department staff, they too work at Covid Care, district health and vaccination centres, but the State has announced Covid medical expenses reimbursement only to regular health department staff.
Also, the State’s special Covid incentives do not include Group D staff, counsellors and ambulance drivers. The association members said that as they do not have job security because they are contractual staff, they too should be employed till they are 60 years old. They sought a 25 per cent hike in salaries like the regular government health staff.