The relay hunger strike by employees of the Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences (ILBS) entered its fourth day on Friday.
The employees, under the banner of ILBS Employees Welfare Association, are protesting the “arbitrary and arrogant” actions taken by the hospital authorities.
“Patient care is not affected as only staff that is off duty is participating in the hunger strike. But we will have to intensify the strike in case the authorities refuse to accept our demands,” said one of the protesters.
In a release issued by the association, the protesters noted that employees in the hospital are on contract and that the authorities have been firing the association’s leaders on “false pretexts”. “They are terrorising the employees with termination of their services... The hospital is taking the Delhi government aid and using it for private work,” read the release.
‘Have set up panel’
Reacting to the allegations, the hospital management released a statement noting that ILBS is an autonomous institute under the Delhi government and it is allowed to take on employees on a four-year contract basis.
The hospital said that an employee is on probation the first year and a performance evaluation by a Performance Assessment Committee is done in the third year to decide whether the contract will be extended.
“Based on recommendations of the PAC, contract tenure of a male nurse was not extended beyond June 1, 2017. In response, a few employees have resorted to protest. ILBS administration has constituted an independent panel to look at the facts of the case,” said Dr. Shantanu Dubey, assistant head of operations (medical), ILBS.
He added that senior management of the institute, including the director, had met the staff on June 7 and had apprised them of the progress made in the case.
