Outsourced workers of Employees State Insurance (ESI) hospitals and dispensaries on Friday struck work and staged a dharna in front of the ESI directorate opposite Gandhi Hospital to mark their protest over non-payment of salaries for the last five months.
The protest was organised by Telangana Medical Contract Employees and Workers Union affiliated to All India Trade Union Congress.
Leaders addressing the camp said the outsourced nursing, para-medical, ward staff, security and sanitation workers at the hospitals of ESI at Nacharam, Ramachandrapuram, Warangal and Kagaznagar have not been paid salaries since April. Their colleagues numbering about 9,500 working in dispensaries across the State have not been paid for the past 16 months.
They accused the ESI management of not releasing salaries even though the workers had discharged duties putting their lives at risk amid the COVID-19 pandemic. On the other hand, a multi-crore scandal in procurement of drugs and medical equipment in the management went unchecked till it was busted recently, they said.
