Members of Erode District Medical Department Workers Association, affiliated to AITUC, has urged the State government to provide minimum wages to the contract workers at the Government Erode Medical College and Hospital at Perundurai and also refund the illegal deductions made by the contractor from the workers’ wages.
In a letter to the Principal Secretary of the Department of Health and Family Welfare, Secretariat, Chennai, association president S. Chinnasamy said over 200 workers were appointed on contract basis from April 17 to May 3 and they continued to work in the hospital that was notified to treat COVID-19 patients.
The district administration had fixed the minimum wage at ₹ 490 for the workers. “But the contractor had fixed the wage at ₹ 423.45 a day for housekeepers and ₹ 448.10 a day for security men,” the letter said. The letter also said that 29% of the wage was deducted towards Provident Fund (24% deduction) while ESI (4%) and Insurance (1%) were deducted from the worker’s wages which was against the law. He said the contractor was paying wage of less than ₹ 300 a day to the workers and wages were also not paid regularly.
After various protests, Collector C. Kathiravan conducted a peace meeting on July 9 in which the Director of Medical Services also participated. Mr. Kathiravan asked the contractor to deduct 12% towards PF and 0.75% towards ESI from the wages and also instructed the contractor to settle the outstanding wages immediately. He also asked the contractor to pay minimum wages as per the law.
The letter urged the State government to immediately provide minimum wages and also refund the illegal deductions made so far.
