WARANGAL: Demanding the hospital management as well as the State government to provide minimum wages, ESI facility and PF to the contract employees, Telangana United Medical and Health Employees Union, affiliated to CITU, submitted a strike notice to MGM Hospital Superintendent Dr Manohar here on Thursday.
The representatives of the union led by CITU city secretary Ragula Ramesh met the Superintendent and stated that they would go on strike after June 15, if their demands are not resolved by then.
“Nearly 130 employees including paramedics and computer operators are working on a contract basis in the various departments of the hospital for nearly 14 years now. They are not paid even the minimum wages and no ESI and PF facility for them,” said Ragula Ramesh.
The contract employees are getting wages ranging from Rs 3,500 to Rs 7,000 per month as salary. “But even these meager salaries are paid once in five months, sometimes, once in seven months,” a worker said.
It is alleged that the MGM Hospital management had not filled as many as 258 posts though the government issued orders for the same (GO 103) in 2006. The workers’ union also demanded the government to regularise the services of the contract employees.
Though MGMH was upgraded to a 1,000-bedded hospital from 690 in 2005, the government did not recruit sufficient staff and infrastructure accordingly. Due to the indifferent attitude of the successive governments, nearly 350 posts including posts for doctors, staff nurses and paramedics are lying vacant.
Currently, there are 1,200 employees working at all the 17 departments in the hospital.