Members of the All-India TB Control Programme Employees’ Association on Friday threatened to proceed on strike in case the Central Health Ministry doesn’t look into their charter of demands immediately.
Stating that they had already submitted a petition listing out their demands to the Health Ministry, Association president R. M. Tripathi said, “The country has 25,000 contractual employees many of whom are on contract and don’t get the benefit of working in a high health risk zone. We want that allowances given to our workers be at par with those in the other health projects and that they be entitled to allowances and other benefits. The Central Government is revising remuneration of contractual staff for five years but the raised scale and allowances are significantly lower than that of corresponding regular staff in the States.”
In their petition, the Association noted: “Early contract system should be stopped and contract should be continued till TB is completely eradicated/phase wise. Also special allowance should be given to employees working in metro cities keeping in mind rising inflation. Tax deduction at source (TDS) should be immediately stopped due to our consolidated and low salary. Patient care allowance should be given keeping in view of the communicable nature of TB and risk associated with our work.’’
The Association has also highlighted the problem of the employees not getting salaries on time and that despite repeated protests nothing has been done to improve their working conditions.